Question

Snow is falling vertically at a constant speed of 8.0 m/s. At what angle from the vertical do the snowflakes appear to be falling as viewed by the driver of a car travelling on a straight, level road with a speed of 50 km/h ?

Answer 1

Let $V_v$ be the vertical velocity of snowflakes and $V_c$ be the velocity of the car.The resultant velocity is $v_{relative}$

$\theta ={\tan }^{-1}\left(\frac{V_c}{V_v}\right)$

$={\tan }^{-1}\left(\frac{50\times {10}^3}{3600\times 8}\right)$

$={\tan }^{-1}\left(1.736\right)$

$\theta ={60}^{\circ }$