Question

A boat is headed due north on a river that's flowing directly east. What is the general direction of travel for this boat with respect to the land?

Answer 1

The answer would be northeast

Answer 2

Answer:

It must be moving at an angle $\theta$ with East towards North

Explanation:

As we know that boat headed towards North while river is flowing towards East

So here the resultant velocity of boat is vector sum of velocity of river and velocity of boat.

So we will find the vector resultant as

$\vec v = \vec v_b + \vec v_r$

here we know

$\vec v_b$ = velocity of boat towards North

$\vec v_r$ = velocity of river towards East

now if we add two vectors along North and and east then the resultant must be between North and East so the boat will move at some angle $\theta$ with East towards North