7. a boat in calm seas travels in a straight line and ends the trip 22 km west and 53 km north of its original position. to the nearest tenth of a degree, find the direction of the trip.

Draw (or imagine) a right triangle with the leg pointing north = 53 and the leg pointing west = 22. Then, the hypotenuse is in the addres of the boat

The angle of the hypotenuse with the "west-leg" is such that:

 tan(angle) = 53 /22,  and

 the angle is the "inverse-tan" of 53/22 = 67.46°.= 67.5°

Then, the direction is 67.5° north of west.

It's like discovering the answer to a puzzle. the purpose in solving an equation is to find the value or values of the variable that makes it a true statement. any value of the variable that makes the equation true is called a solution to the equation.