Two persons are standing 500 m apart on opposite sides of a building. One determines that the angle of elevation to the top of the building from their position is 22o, and the other determines it to be 27o. How tall is the building?
2007-12-15 17:18:00 · 1 answers · asked by miakimiharu 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
A triangle has three sides and three angles. If you know ANY three of these quantities, the other three are easily found.
You have two right triangles. Let the first person be B meters from the building, and the other be ( 500 - B ) from the building. Since they're on opposite sides and nothing is said about the building's width, we'll assume it's small. Let H be the height of the building.
Triangle 1: Angle - Side - Angle - Side is 22 degrees - B - 90 degrees - H
Triangle 2: Angle - Side - Angle - Side is 27 degrees - ( 500 - B ) - 90 degrees - H.
Use the information of Triangle 1 to find B in terms of H. Then substitute that into the second triangle and find H.
2007-12-15 17:30:08 · answer #1 · answered by jgoulden 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋