ENGINEERING APPLICATION, CONTEXT-RICH During a

Chapter , Problem 59

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ENGINEERING APPLICATION, CONTEXT-RICH During a radio-controlled model-airplane competition, each plane must fly from the center of a 1.0-km-radius circle to any point on the circle and back to the center. The winner is the plane that has the shortest round-trip time. The contestants are free to fly their planes along any route as long as the plane begins at the center, travels to the circle, and then returns to the center. On the day of the race, a steady wind blows out of the north at 5.0 m/s. Your plane can maintain an air speed of 15 m/s. Should you fly your plane upwind on the first leg and downwind on the trip back, or across the wind, flying east and then west? Optimize your chances by calculating the round-trip time for both routes using your knowledge of vectors and relative velocities. With this prerace calculation, you can determine the best route and have a major advantage over the competition!