• SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They’re traveling away from their origin at constant velocities, so they’re traveling relative to each other at constant velocities as well.

    The magnitude of the resulting vector (i.e., speed) can be calculated trivially since their movement is perpendicular on a plane, as the root of sum of squares, which many could recognize as the Pythagorean theorem:

    √((5 ft/s)² + (1 ft/s)²) = √26 ft/s ≈ 5.1 ft/s

    You can verify this by finding that their average speed apart is the same at all times (for all t > 0):

    Vavg = √((t * 5 ft/s)² + (t * 1 ft/s)²) / t = √(t² * ((5 ft/s)² + (1 ft/s)²)) / t = √26 ft/s

  • De_Narm@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    It’s been a while, but I think it’s quite trivial.

    After one second, they span a right angled triangle, therefore (using a² + b² = c²) their distance is √(5²+1²) = ~5.1 ft

    They move at constant speed, therefore they seperate at 5.1 ft/s. That means at 5s it’s just 5.1 × 5 = 25.5 ft for the distance and their speed is still the same.

  • Bumblefumble@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Depends on where they met each other. If they for example fell in love during the main event of a trip to the north pole, that would change things a lot.

  • Missmuffet@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Its pretty convenient that its raining, which means you can ignore the coefficient of friction since the surface is slippery

    • havid_dume@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Each of their speeds is constant, but different, and they’re walking in different directions.

      • luciole (he/him)@beehaw.org
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        2 months ago

        Their distance is the hypotenuse of a triangle with sides 5t and t which will be root((5t)2 + t2). So the distance at time t of the ex lovers will be root(26) × t. You can basically grasp intuitively that the speed is indeed constant and equals to the root(26)=5.1 ft/sec. Technically you’d use the derivative power rule to drop the t and get the speed.

  • Saki@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    reminds me of that one song, proof that geometric construction can solve all love affairs or something like that