The forces acting on a sailboat are 390N north and 180N east. If the boat (including crew) has a mass of?

Question

270kg, what are the magnitude and direction of the boat's acceleration?

Answer 1

Long time since I did this kind of equation but force is sq root of 390 sq + 180 sq = 335.22N

Direction is 90 - Tan -1 390/180 ==compass heading of 24.78 deg.

I do not know if I have this correct. High school maths was 50+ years ago

Answer 2

Newton's second law. Accelleration=Force/mass

Firstly, Net force is 210N North-East

0.777 NKg is the rate of acceleration.

Answer 3

Dave M ... I'm not doubting your calculations but surely if the forces were acting from North and East then surely the boat's acceleration would be South and West?

180^2 + 390^2 = force ^2 (Pythagoras)

root of force^2 = 429.5N approx resultant force

Acceleration = Force/Mass

429.5/270 = 1.5907 ms^-2 in a  Southwesterly direction.