spped and velocity

Question

A vehicle landing on Mars has a vertical velocity toward the surface of 5.5km and a horizontal velicity of 3.5m/s

a) what is the speed of the vehicle along the decent path

b) what is the angle

 

I can use  pythagoream for 5.5^2 + 3.5^2 = pathlength^2

 

But how can i get speed ?

 

Then can I tan(theta) = 3.5^2/ 5.5^2  to get the angle ?

Answer 1

The value from the Pythagorean theorem is the speed.

To find the angle, you should use

θ = tan ^-1 (V_y/V_x) = tan ^-1 (-5.5/3.5)