Word problem help?

Question

sailboat speed. The sail area-displacement ratio S provides a measure of the sail power available to drive a boat. For a boat with a displacement of d pounds and a sail area of A square feet

S=16Ad^-2/3

a)Find S to the nearest tenth for the Tartan 4100, which has a sail area of 810 square feet and displacement of 23,245 pounds.

b)solve the formula for d.

can any one help me please

Answer 1

Sail boat speed is dependent on waterline length.

square root of the waterline in knots =hull speed, a displacement boat will not go much above hull speed.

Your formula tels what is needed to get it up to hull speed.

S=16(810) (23,245)^-2/3

The old saying in math is"Please excuse my dear aunt Sally" which gives you the order of operations. (do what is in the parenthesis) nothing.

do exponents  before the multiplication process.

use a calculator with exponent function to do 23,245 to the -2/3 power

Then you can do the multiplication of 16 X 810 X the exponent problem answer

Answer 2

you state in that 'd' = displacement (lbs) and then you advise that the boat in question has a displacemnt of 23,245 lbs; so your question, to solve for 'd', would have to be 23,245 lbs.

Answer 3

Try this:

http://www.sailingusa.info/cal__sad_rati...

or maybe here:

http://home.att.net/~hcyoung/index.htm