Question

An observer at top of a tower of height 15m sees a man due west of him at an angle of depression 31 degrees. He sees another man due south of an angle of depression 17 degrees. Find the distance between the men.

Answer 1

You've got two triangles to solve here, and then distance between two points. If the tower is at the origin, looking west, he'll see a man at (-x,0) where x is the long side of a right triangle with angle 31 degrees and short side 15. looking south, he'll see a man at (0,-y) where y is the long side of a right triangle with angle 17 degrees and short side 15. once you have the points, use the formula for the distance between two points \((x_1,y_1),(x_2,y_2)\)
\[d=\sqrt{(x_1-x_2)^2+(y_1-y_2)^2}\]

Answer 2

Looks good, the only thing left is to find values for x and y.

Answer 3

couldn't understand