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1)
Applications
During World War II, a British scientist named Barnes Wallis developed a cylindrical bomb,
sometimes called a “skip bomb”, that was designed to blow up German dams.
The dams were a significant part of the German infrastructure. They provided electricity and water,
and were also used to control water levels in canals. It was believed that a blow to the dams would
greatly impair the German war effort.
The problem was that regular bombs would not work. To be effective, the bomb needed to explode
beneath the surface, and the water was likely to cushion the impact of the explosion unless the
bomb was right next to the dam. Torpedos dropped from torpedo bombers also would not work
because the Germans had set up nets specifically to prevent such an attack.
The skip bomb was designed to be dropped from a low flying plane approaching the dam. It would
skip across the surface of the water right up the dam and then sink. A mechanism on the bomb
would then cause it to detonate at a certain depth, right next to the dam.
Wallace determined that the bombs had to be dropped at a speed of 230 mph from a height of just
60 feet above the water. A special squadron of British pilots known as the Dam Busters was trained
for a mission on which they would attach three German dams, the Mohne, Eder, and Sorpe Dams
on the Ruhr in Germany. The Dam Busters destroyed the Mohne and Eder Dams, striking a serious
blow to the German war machine, but lost 53 soldiers in the attacks.
The aircraft used in the raids was the Avro Lancaster, a British four-engine heavy bomber. One
problem that had to solved dealt with the altitude of the bomber. It had to be flown at the
dangerously low altitude of 60 feet, and it had to hold this altitude while the bombadier released the
bomb. The planes had no instruments that could measure this altitude accurately. The question,
then, was how to know that the plane was flying at exactly 60 feet above the water.
The problem was solved by using two flashlights, one in the nose of the plane and one toward the
back.
Practice Problems for Lesson 3 (Sullivan, Section 8.1, pages 488 - 493):
Applications: 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41
‘ Do HW 8A
The square of one side of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides
minus two times the product of the other two sides and the angle between them.
The formula itself looks a bit like the Pythagorean Theorem. Take note of what happens if we apply
this formula to a right triangle.
The Pythagorean Theorem can be considered a special case of the Law of Cosines.
Find c
Example:
Practice Problems for Lesson 4 (Sullivan, Section 8.2, pages 496 - 497):
The Law of Cosines: 1 - 17 odd, 23, 25, 27, 31
The base of the triangle is b. The height of the triangle is h, and h is CsinA. The area, then, is
Take note of the quantities in the above equation: sides b and c, and angle A. We have two sides
and their included angle.
The area of a triangle is half the product of two sides and the sine of the included angle.
Example:
If we know the three sides of a triangle, but not any angles, we can still find the area of the triangle
using a formula known as Heron’s Formula:
where
Example:
Practice Problems for Lesson 5 (Sullivan, Section 8.3, pages 504 - 505):
The Area of a Triangle: 1 - 19 odd
‘ Do HW 8B
Polar Coordinates
Up to now, we have been using a Cartesian coordinate system, in which the coordinate plane is
sectioned by x and y axes.
The Cartesian coordinate system allows us to locate points (or lines or curves) in the plane by using
x and y coordinates.
Now that we know some trigonometry, we can make use of another system for locating points and
curves in the plane, the polar coordinate system.
The polar axis lies where we would normally put the positive x-axis.
The two numbers r and θ are called the polar coordinates of the point.
Example:
You should see that any point in the plane can be specified this way.
(1, π)
One of the points in the above list, (3, 9π/4), illustrates that in polar coordinates, a given point may
have more than one set of coordinates. The same point could also be
or
Example: For the point , find other polar coordinates such that r > 0 and
Example: For the point , find other polar coordinates such that r > 0 and
The question is sometimes asked, “Why do we need polar coordinates? Don’t we already have a
perfectly good system of rectangular coordinates? Why complicate things unnecessarily by adding
an entire additional system?”
The answer is that in some situations, polar coordinates are more intuitive and simple to deal with.
Polar coordinates are often used in navigation. A destination can be given as an angle and a
distance from the current location. Situations than demonstrate radial symmetry are often described
in polar coordinates. For example, the groundwater flow in an aquifer is described by equations in
polar coordinates, as are the pickup patterns for microphones. In all of these situations, polar
coordinates are more natural to work with than rectangular coordinates.
Practice Problems for Lesson 6 (Sullivan, Section 8.4, pages 513 - 514):
Polar Coordinates: 1 - 19 odd
We use our right triangle definitions of sine and cosine to understand how to convert between polar
and rectangular coordinates.
We can draw a right triangle whose dimensions are determined by point P. The legs of the triangle
will be x and y, and the hypotenuse will be r.
H: (2.6, -1.7)
D: (0, 4)
A: r = 4, θ = π/4
B: r = 5.5, θ = 5π/6
C: r = 3.61, θ = 212.3E
x = r cos θ y = r sin θ
Practice Problems for Lesson 7 (Sullivan, Section 8.4, pages 513 - 514):
Polar and Rectangular Conversion: 21 - 63 odd
‘ Do HW 8C