The altitude of a hang glider is increasing at a rate of 6.90 m/s. At the same time, the shadow of the glider moves along the ground at a speed of 14.0 m/s when the sun is directly overhead. Find the magnitude of the glider's velocity in m/s.:(

56m/s

This problem is about projections of the velocity, which is a vector (i.e. characterized by direction and magnitude): vertical component is Vy, horizontal component is Vx. If the projections of the vector of velocity are known (which they are in this problem), then the length (or the magnitude) of this vector or, in other words, the magnitude of the velocity is ALWAYS found through Pythagorean theorem. I.e. for this particular two component problem: |V| = sqrt ( Vx^2 + Vy^2 ). |V| means the magnitude of the velocity vector V. Does this make it a bit more clear? Can you find the direction of the velocity vector in addition to the magnitude? H. *** P.S. The right answer is not 56 m/s.***