Question

PLEASE HELP ME---A wheelchair access ramp has an angle of elevation of 24°. If the ramp
reaches to the top of a 30 inch high porch, how long is the ramp?

Answer 1

You know an angle and the opposite side, you want the adjacent side. Which trig function relates those 3 parts?

Answer 2

Set up the equation, then solve it for L. :)

Answer 3

Whoh, wait, I drew that wrong... hang on....

Answer 4

You know an angle and the opposite side, you want the hypotenuse. Which trig function relates those 3 parts?

Proceed as outlined above... :)

Answer 5

um it would be sine right? sin24?

Answer 6

Well, that's the right function, yes. Now what's the equation?

Answer 7

sin24*={what?}/{what?}

Answer 8

sin24= 30/ x???

Answer 9

Yup... exactly! Now solve that puppy for x.

Answer 10

i thnk i did something wrong in the solving because i got a negative number

Answer 11

I think your calculator is in radian mode.

Answer 12

Because I'm kinda psychic like that. :)

Answer 13

oh hahahah i think you're right lol

Answer 14

ok now its on deg but i got a really small number

Answer 15

hmmm.... can you show me exactly what you entered in your calc?

Answer 16

i put in sin 24 and i got 0.40673 then i divided it by 30

Answer 17

i did it wrong huh?

Answer 18

Yup... hold on, was having technical problems...

Answer 19

ok haha

Answer 20

You have:

\(\Large \sin24^*=\dfrac{30}{x}\)

To solve that for x, you need to MULTIPLY both sides by x
then DIVIDE both sides by sin(24*)

Answer 21

But YOU ended up with sin(24*)/30.... that's backwards.

Answer 22

That would be giving you 1/x. :)

\(\Large \dfrac{1}{30}\cdot\sin24^*=\dfrac{30}{x}\cdot\dfrac{1}{30}\)
\(\Large \dfrac{\sin24^*}{30}=\dfrac{1}{x}\)

See what I mean?

Answer 23

ohh yeah i got you

Answer 24

Here is what you MEANT to do:

\[\Large \dfrac{x}{\sin24^*}\cdot\sin24^*=\dfrac{30}{x}\cdot\dfrac{x}{\sin24^*}\]

\(\Large x=\dfrac{30}{\sin24^*}\)

Answer 25

ohh i get it

Answer 26

so the answer would be 73.75

Answer 27

That's what I got. :)

Answer 28

omg yay haha thanks so much!

Answer 29

You're welcome, happy to help! :)