A highway makes an angle of 6 with the horizontal. This angle is maintained for a horizontal distance of 5 miles.
To the nearest hundredth of a mile, how high does the highway rise in this 5-mile section? Show the steps you use to find the distance.

Question

A highway makes an angle of 6  with the horizontal. This angle is maintained for a horizontal distance of 5 miles.
	To the nearest hundredth of a mile, how high does the highway rise in this 5-mile section? Show the steps you use to find the distance.

anonymous · Answer

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adj = 5
angle = 6
tan(angle) = opp/adj

You want to find the length (height) of the opposite side:

So if

tan(6) = opp/5

then

opp = tan(6) * 5

anonymous · Answer

so am i supposed to find tan next?

anonymous · Answer

ok girl  mutiply the lenght and the height and base and divide by 2

anonymous · Answer

She's looking for the height, not the area.

anonymous · Answer

oh well ok the base x weight right

anonymous · Answer

She doesn't have the height yet.

She's looking for the height.

The height is the length of the opposite side.

That's what she's looking for.

The length of the opposite side.

The length of the opposite side = the height.

The height is equal to tan(6) * 5

anonymous · Answer

wait what im so confused what do i do

anonymous · Answer

Do you know what a tangent is?

anonymous · Answer

Are you there?

anonymous · Answer

its one of the sides of the triangle?

anonymous · Answer

tangent is the ratio of the sides of the triangle

anonymous · Answer

do you know what im supposed to do?

anonymous · Answer

open a calculator and find the value of tan(6), then the result should be multiplied by 5

anonymous · Answer

or go to google and type tan(6)  get the value. The final answer is 0.5255....m