homework help?

Question

smokey the bear is atop a 100-foot tower, looking out over a fairly level area for careless people who might start fires
suddenly, he sees a fire starting. He marks down the direction of the but he also needs to know how far away from the tower the fire is.
To out this distance, smokey grabs a protractor, since he is high up on top of the tower, he has to look slighty downward toward the fire. He finds that his line of sight to the fire is at an angle of 6 degrees below horizontal.
i want to find out how far smokey is from the fire.

would you do 100cos(6)
or 100sin(6)
or neither
what would you do??

smokey the bear is atop a 100-foot tower, looking out over a fairly level area for careless people who might start fires
suddenly, he sees a fire starting. He marks down the direction of the but he also needs to know how far away from the tower the fire is.
To out this distance, smokey grabs a protractor, since he is high up on top of the tower, he has to look slighty downward toward the fire. He finds that his line of sight to the fire is at an angle of 6 degrees below horizontal.
i want to find out how far smokey is from the fire.
would you do 100cos(6)
or 100sin(6)
or neither
what would you do??
or after finding the ratio cos(6) or ain(6) not sure??
instead of just typing the whole problem in the caluculator, can u use that ratio and that one length, which im sure its 100, do you use that and the ratio to find how far smokey is from the fire...
can you that only using trig for finding the ratio and then using the ratio and the length of one side to find the other length?

Answer 1

The height of the triangle is 100 ft, this is one of the legs of a right triangle, you want to find the other leg, knowing that one angle of the triangle is 6 degree.

SOHCAHTOA
Sin = opposite / hypotenuse
Cos = adjacent /hypotenuse
Tan = opposite / adjaced

The 100 ft is opposite the angle and you want to find the length adjacent to the angle, not the hypotenuse.

Use tan(6) = 100 / X

Solve for X

X = 100 / tan(6)

Answer 2

You need to use 100/tan(84) to find the answer
or tan(6)*100


Tan being opposite(distance to fire) over adjacent(height of tower)

answer would be 10,51 feet which is dumb

Do not listen to jb, he seems to have forgottent the angle is seem from the top of the tower therefore you have to do 90-6 to find the angle!

Answer 3

With regard to the angle you know, you want to know the Opposite side and you have an adjacent side, the 100 ft pole

Sine= Oh /Hell

Cosine = Another /Hour

Tangent= Of /Algebra

Tan(6) = opposite (the side you want) / Adjacent (the side you have)

The rest is left to the interested student