No clue: find new location, given angle of rotation

[confused0874]

Not sure what my problem is with this question, but I just can't get it. Below is the question:

A robot has a straight arm 20 inches long that can rotate about the origin of a coordinate system. If the robot's hand is located at (-20, 0) and then rotates to the angle of 30°, what is the new location of the hand with the coordinates approximated to the nearest 0.01 inch?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[pka]

Your question is a bit vague. We must make some assumptions.
The rotations take place in a plane!
But we do not know if it is clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Clockwise we get \(\displaystyle \left( { - 10\sqrt 3 ,10} \right)\).

Counter-clockwise we get \(\displaystyle \left( { - 10\sqrt 3 , - 10} \right)\).

 

[confused0874]

answers

I was giving multiple choice answers for this question, so maybe that will help explain more of what they are looking for.

a. (-17.32, -10.00)
b. (-10.0, -17.32)
c. (-10.0, 17.32)
d. (-17.32, 10.0)

 

[pka]

Faced with those options, I would choose (a).
For many, positive rotations are counter-clockwise.