[Math] How to solve a bearing vector type problem

algebra-precalculusgeometrytrigonometryvector-spaces

A plane is headed due south with an airspeed of 192 mph. A wind with a bearing of 78 degrees is blowing at 23 mph. Find the groundspeed and resulting bearing of the plane.

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I tried doing it this way as I was not given an angle for the airspeed of the plane for the first one, I don't know if the component form of the wind is correct or not, I'm confused on the idea of converting the bearing of an angle.
Whats the correct answer and correct way of doing this?

Best Answer

Bearing in this case means that the wind blows almost towards East (slightly on the northern side of it). See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_bearing#/media/File:Compass_Card_B%2BW.svg That means that you can decompose the velocity of the wind into two components, one towards North, with magnitude $23\cos{73^\circ}$mph, and one towards East, with magnitude $23\sin{73^\circ}$mph. You need to add these velocities to the velocity of the plane. Since the plane is moving South with respect to the air, the new components along ground are going to be $192-23\cos{73^\circ}$mph towards South and $23\sin{73^\circ}$mph towards East. From these, you should apply Pythagoras's theorem to get the new velocity