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I am randomly generating wind speed for the X and Z axes. Let's say I have that the wind is blowing X MPH in the north direction and Y MPH in the east direction. I want one final value for the wind's speed, though.

Is it accurate to just say that the wind's speed is equal to (X+Y)/2? So if the north wind speed is 11 MPH and the east wind speed is 2 MPH, the overall wind speed is 6.5 MPH?

NateRob
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  • The speed is a vector. You need to do vector addition instead of scalar addition. – IntegralLover Mar 28 '21 at 19:30
  • So then the vectors would be <x,0> and <0,y>. Adding them would equal <x,y>. Would the wind speed be equal to the magnitude of this vector then? (so 11.18 MPH in my original example?) – NateRob Mar 28 '21 at 19:48
  • For 2D case, yes. – IntegralLover Mar 28 '21 at 19:50
  • Yeah I meant the 2D case. Thanks! If you'd like to answer the question I can accept it as a solution. – NateRob Mar 28 '21 at 19:52
  • No problem. You already understand it right? So I don't need to write it up again. By the way, when you define a vector, you need to define both its magnitude and its direction. In this case, the direction of the wind is northeast, with an angle of $arctan(2/11)$ away from north. – IntegralLover Mar 28 '21 at 20:01

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