Whale sharks swim forward while ascending or descending. They swim along a strai

Question

Whale sharks swim forward while ascending or descending. They swim along a straight-line path at a shallow angle as they move from the surface to deep water or from the depths to the surface. In one recorded dive, a shark started 50 m below the surface and swam at 0.85 m/s along a path tipped at a 13 degree angle above the horizontal until reaching the surface.

A.) What was the horizontal distance between the shark's starting and ending positions?

B.) What was the total distance that the shark swam?

C.) How much time did this motion take?

Explanation / Answer

by the trigonometry

tan theta = h/L

tan 13 = 50 /L

L = 50/tan13

L = 216.57 m

par b )

d = sqrt(L^2 + h^2)

d = 222.27 m

part c )

t = 222.27/0.85 = 261.49 s

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