Trig question?
When traveling toward a given city at 55 miles per hour, a student measures the angle of elevation to the tallest building in the city as 3 degrees. One minute later, the angel of elevation to the building is 5 degrees. How far is the student from the city at the spot of the first measurements? How tall is the building?
I looked over this for a couple minutes before giving up. Can someone explain the process to me?
2007-11-26 12:00:54 · 6 answers · asked by vampirexgp 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
You are at a starting point. You look up and see a building roof at 3 degrees up from horizon. Obviously, you have a triangle forming here.... (right?) draw it out on paper.
You traveled for one minute at 55mph. How far did you move? Move your position that far and look up 5 degrees. Draw a line.
Now, do you see a second triangle? Yes, there is a triangle with 1 minute worth of traveling at the base and two lines pointing to the top of the building.
Can you figure out the angle at the peak of the triangle? Also, at this point, you should be able to figure out all the angles easily.
Then, you can use laws of sine and laws of cosine to figure out all the length of the segments. I would figure out the oblique triangle first, then the right triangle.
2007-11-26 12:16:04 · answer #1 · answered by tkquestion 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the student has traveled 0.92 miles
there was a difference in the two angles of 2 degree
it shouldnt take but more than a minute to figure this out
2007-11-26 12:12:18 · answer #2 · answered by J J 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
tan60=y/250 250tan60=y y=80 y+5.5=~86
2016-05-26 01:33:15 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That sounds difficult. I'm in 9th grade and that's way over my head...
2007-11-26 12:05:12 · answer #4 · answered by pRiNcEsS 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
draw a triangle and work it out
2007-11-26 12:04:19 · answer #5 · answered by tommy a 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
its your homework not ours
2007-11-26 12:05:03 · answer #6 · answered by hannah 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋