Relative Motion

QUESTION NO. 1 A river is flowing at 4 m/sec due south. A boat, whose speed in still
water is 3 m/sec, is steered in the direction due east. Find the true speed and direction of the
motion of the boat.

QUESTION NO. 2 A river is flowing at 3 m/sec due east. A speedboat, whose speed in still
water is 5 m/sec, is steered in the direction on a bearing of 330o. Find the resultant velocity of
the speedboat.

QUESTION NO. 3 In the diagram, a river is flowing at a speed of 2.5 m/sec due east. A
boat, whose speed in still water is 6 m/sec, is steered in the direction due north. Find the true
velocity of the boat.

QUESTION NO. 4 A soldier who swims at 1.2 m/sec in still water wishes to cross a river
20 m wide. The water is flowing between straight parallel banks at 1.8 m/sec. He swims
upstream in a direction making an angle of 70o with the bank. Find a) The resultant velocity
b) The time taken for the crossing, to the nearest second.

QUESTION NO. 5 The diagram shows a river, 30 m wide, flowing at a speed of 3.5 m/sec,
between straight parallel banks. A boat, whose speed in still water is 6 m/sec, crosses the
river from a point A on one bank to a point B on the opposite bank, 5 m upstream. In order to
travel directly from A to B, the boat is steered in a direction making an angle α to the bank as
shown. Find a) The value of α, b) The resultant speed of the boat, c) The time taken for the
crossing, to the nearest second. In order to make the return journey from B to A, what is the
course taken by the boat.
QUESTION NO. 6 The speed of an aircraft in still air is 300 km/h. The wind velocity is 60
km/h from the east. The aircraft is steered on the course in the direction 60o. Find the true
velocity of the aircraft

QUESTION NO. 7 An aircraft flies due east from A to B where AB = 200 km. The wind is
blowing from the direction 30o at 60 km/h. The speed of the aircraft in still air is 300 km/h
and the pilot sets the course on the bearing θo. Find: a) the value of θ, b) the time taken, in
minutes, for the journey from A to B.

QUESTION NO. 8 a) An aircraft is flying due south at 350 km/h. The wind is blowing at 70
km/h from the direction θo, where θo is acute. Given that the pilot is steering the aircraft in the
direction 170o. Find i) the value of θ ii) the speed of the aircraft in still air.

QUESTION NO. 9 The diagram shows a river, 160 m wide, flowing at a speed of 2.4
m/sec, between straight parallel banks. A boat crosses the river from a point A on one bank to
a point B on the opposite bank, 120 m downstream. The speed of the boat in still water is 5.6
m/sec. In order to travel directly from A to B, the boat is steered in a direction making an
angle of α to the bank as shown. Find a) the value of α b) the resultant speed of the boat c) the
time taken for the crossing

QUESTION NO. 10 Two particles P and Q, are 30 m apart with Q due north of P. Particle
Q is moving at 5 m/sec in the direction 090o and Q is moving at 7 m/sec in a direction 030o.
Find a) the magnitude and direction of the velocity of Q relative to P,
b) the time taken for Q to be due east of P, to the nearest second.

QUESTION NO. 11 At a particular instant, two ships P and Q are 5 km apart and move
with constant speeds and directions as shown. Find: a) the speed and direction of P relative to
Q, b) the distance apart, in meters, when P is due north of Q.
QUESTION NO. 12 At a particular instant, two boats P and Q are 2 km apart and P is due
north of Q. The boats move with constant speeds and directions as shown. Find
a) the speed and direction of Q relative to P,
b) the distance apart, in meters, when Q is due east of P.

QUESTION NO. 13 At a particular moment, two ships A and B are 5 km apart with A due
west of B. Ship A is sailing due south at 5 km/h and ship B is sailing due west at 8 km/h. Find
a) the velocity of A relative to B,
b) the distance between the two ships when A is on the bearing of 225o from B.

QUESTION NO. 14 Two aircraft A and B fly at the same height with constant velocities.
At noon, aircraft B is 50 km due east of aircraft A and is flying due west at 450 km/h.
Aircraft A is flying on the bearing 120o at 300 km/h. Find
a) the velocity of B relative to A
b) the time when B is due north of A.

QUESTION NO. 15 In the diagram, two particles P and Q, moving with speeds 8 m/sec and
10 m/sec respectively, leave simultaneously when they are 50 m apart with P due west of Q.
Particles P and Q are moving in the direction as shown. Given that P and Q are on the path of
collision. Find
a) the value of θ
b) the time that elapses before the collision, to the nearest second.

QUESTION NO. 16 At a given instant, an airship is moving due north with a speed of 6
m/sec. A helicopter, 500 m due east of the airship, flies at a speed of 12 m/sec and steers on a
bearing θ in order to intercept the airship. Find
a) the value of θ
b) the time that elapses before the interception.

QUESTION NO. 17 Two particles, A and B, are 50 m apart with A due north of B. particles
A is travelling at 10 m/sec in a direction 075o and B is travelling at V m/sec in a direction
015o. a) Given that V = 20. Find i) The magnitude and direction of the velocity of B relative
to A. ii) The time taken for B to be due west of A. b) Given that B collides with A, Find i) the
value of V ii) the time taken for B to collide with A.

QUESTION NO. 18 At 1200 hours, ship P is at the point with position vector 50j km and
ship Q is at the point with position vector (80i+20j) km, as shown in the diagram. Ship P is
travelling with velocity (20 i +10 j) km/ h and ship Q is travelling with velocity (–10 i+30 j)
km/ h ( i ) Find an expression for the position vector of P and of Q at time t hours after 1200
hours. (ii) Use your answers to part ( i ) to determine the distance apart of P and Q at 1400
hours. (iii) Determine, with full working, whether or not P and Q will meet.

QUESTION NO. 19 An ocean liner is travelling at 36 km/h on a bearing of 090°. At 0600

hours the liner, which is 90 km from a lifeboat and on a bearing of 315° from the lifeboat,
sends a message for assistance. The lifeboat sets off immediately and travels in a straight line
at constant speed, intercepting the liner at 0730 hours. Find the speed at which the lifeboat
travels.

QUESTION NO. 20 In this question, i is a unit vector due east and j is a unit vector due
north. A plane flies from P to Q. The velocity, in still air, of the plane is (280i - 40j) km/h and
there is a constant wind blowing with velocity (50i -70j) km/h. Find (i) the bearing of Q from
P, (ii) the time of flight, to the nearest minute, given that the distance PQ is 273 km.

QUESTION NO. 21 To a cyclist travelling due south on a straight horizontal road at 7 m/s,
the wind appears to be blowing from the north-east. Given that the wind has a constant speed
of 12 m/s, find the direction from which the wind is blowing.

QUESTION NO. 22 A motor boat travels in a straight line across a river which flows at 3
m/s between straight parallel banks 200 m apart. The motor boat, which has a top speed of 6
m/s in still water, travels directly from a point A on one bank to a point B, 150 m downstream
of A, on the opposite bank. Assuming that the motor boat is travelling at top speed, find, to
the nearest second, the time it takes to travel from A to B.

QUESTION NO. 23 A plane, whose speed in still air is 300km/h, flies directly from X to Y.
Given that Y is 720 km from X on a bearing of 150o and there is a constant wind of 120 km/h
blowing towards the west. Find the time taken for the flight.

QUESTION NO. 24 The diagram, which is not drawn according to scale, shows a
horizontal rectangular surface. One corner of the surface is taken as the origin O and i and j
are unit vectors along the edges of the surface.
A fly, F, starts at the point with position vector (i+12j) cm and crawls across the surface with
a velocity of (3i +2j) cm/s. At the instant that the fly starts crawling, a spider, S, at the point
with position vector (85i + 5j) cm, sets off across the surface with a velocity of (-5i + kj)
cm/s, where k is a constant. Given that the spider catches the fly, calculate the value of k.

QUESTION NO. 25 A plane, flies due north from A to B, a distance of 1000 km, in a time
of 2 hours. During this time a steady wind, with a speed of 150 km/h, is blowing from the
south east. Find:
i) the speed of the plane in still air,
ii) the direction in which the plane must be steered.

QUESTION NO. 26 The diagram shows a river 90 m wide, flowing at 2 m/sec between
parallel banks. A ferry travels in a straight line from a point A to a point B directly opposite
A. Given that the ferry takes exactly one minute to cross the river, find
i) the speed of the ferry in still water,
ii) ii) the angle to the bank at which the ferry must be steered.

QUESTION NO. 27 The diagram shows a large rectangular television screen in which one
corner is taken as the origin O and i and j are unit vectors along two of the edges. In a game,
an alien spacecraft appears at the point A with position vector 12j cm and moves across the
screen with velocity (40i +15j) cm per second. A player fires a missile from a point B; the
missile is fired 0.5 seconds after the spacecraft appears on the screen. The point B has
position vector 46i cm and the velocity of the missile is (ki +30j) cm per second, where k is a
constant. Given that the missile hits the spacecraft,
(i) show that the spacecraft moved across the screen for 1.8 seconds before impact,
(ii) (ii) find the value of k.

QUESTION NO. 28 In this question, i is a unit vector due east, and j is a unit vector due
north. A plane flies from P to Q where PQ = (960i +400 j) km. A constant wind is blowing
with velocity (–60i +60j) km/h. Given that the plane takes 4 hours to travel from P to Q, find:
(i) the velocity, in still air, of the plane, giving your answer in the form (ai + bj) km/ h,
(ii) the bearing, to the nearest degree, on which the plane must be directed

QUESTION NO. 29 In this question i is a unit vector due east and j is a unit vector due
north. At 0900 hours a ship sails from the point P with position vector (2i + 3j) km relative to
an origin O. The ship sails north-east with a speed of 15√ 2 km/ h. (i) Find, in terms of i and j,
the velocity of the ship. (ii) Show that the ship will be at the point with position vector (24.5i
+ 25.5 j) km at 1030 hours. (iii) Find, in terms of i, j and t, the position of the ship t hours
after leaving P. At the same time as the ship leaves P, a submarine leaves the point Q with
position vector (47i – 27 j) km. The submarine proceeds with a speed of 25 km /h due north
to meet the ship. (iv) Find, in terms of i and j, the velocity of the ship relative to the
submarine. (v) Find the position vector of the point where the submarine meets the ship.

QUESTION NO. 30 The diagram shows a river with parallel banks. The river is 48 m wide
and is flowing with a speed of 1.4 m/s. A boat travels in a straight line from a point P on one
bank to a point Q which is on the other bank directly opposite P. Given that the boat takes 10
seconds to cross the river, find: (i) the speed of the boat in still water, (ii) the angle to the
bank at which the boat should be steered.

QUESTION NO. 31 At 1000 hours, a ship P leaves a point A with position vector (– 4i +
8j) km relative to an origin O, where i is a unit vector due East and j is a unit vector due
North. The ship sails north-east with a speed of 10√2 km/h . Find (i) the velocity vector of P
(ii) the position vector of P at 1200 hours. At 1200 hours, a second ship Q leaves a point B
with position vector (19i +34j) km travelling with velocity vector (8i + 6j ) km/h. (iii) Find
the velocity of P relative to Q. (iv) Hence, or otherwise, find the time at which P and Q meet
and the position vector of the point where this happens.

QUESTION NO. 32 A man holds his umbrella vertically up while walking due west
with a constant velocity of magnitude vm = 1.5 m/sec in rain. To protect himself from
rain, he has to rotate his umbrella through an angle φ = 30° when he stops walking.
Find the velocity of the rain.

QUESTION NO. 33 A boy is running on a horizontal road with a velocity of 5 m/s. At what
angle should he hold his umbrella in order to protect himself from the rain, if it is raining
with a velocity of 10 m/s vertically downward ?

QUESTION NO. 32