A girl walks 800m on a bearing of 129 degrees. Calculate how far (a) East (b) South she is from her starting point

Answer 1

129 degrees clockwise from due North

would be in quadrant IV

South distance = 800sin39 =about 503.46 m South

and East distance = 800cos39 = about 621.72 m East

Answer 2

Bearing is measured as the number of degrees clockwise from north.

Therefore a girl walking at a bearing of 129° walks like this:

meaning that you could make a triangle like this:

"x" would be the distance she traveled east and "y" would be the distance she traveled south.

cos(39°) = x/800 or x = 800cos(39°)

sin(39°) = y/800 or y = 800sin(39°)