Question

Two birds sit at the top of two different trees 17.8 feet away from one another. The distance between the first bird and a bird watcher on the ground is 37.4 feet.

What is the angle measure, or angle of depression, between this bird and the bird watcher?

Answer 1

Hint:

cos(x) = 17.8/37.4

Answer 2

rest is 90-x

Answer 3

why 90-x?

Answer 4

to find out the angle of elevation the angle made between bird and bird watcher

Answer 5

so, i did 17.8/37.4 and got .475...?

Answer 6

they want the angle of depression, which is just x in this case

Answer 7

good so far

Answer 8

yea it's fine

Answer 9

what do i do next?

Answer 10

nothing you're done

Answer 11

take the arccosine of both sides

Answer 12

to solve for x

Answer 13

then what would be? and what is arccosine?

Answer 14

arccosine is the same as inverse cosine

Answer 15

cos inverse of 0.475

Answer 16

on your calculator, it's most likely labeled \(\Large \cos^{-1}\)

Answer 17

i got 61.6

Answer 18

I'm getting about the same too

Answer 19

thanks!

Answer 20

I got 61.5797, but that rounds to 61.6

Answer 21

you're welcome

Answer 22

yeah thats what i got too

Answer 23

ok great