Question

Can anyone help me figure out how to do this?

A wildlife biologist looks up at a 78 degree angle and spots a flock of geese. The biologist is standing 200ft away from a place directly beneath the geese. How high are the geese flying to the nearest tenth of a foot?

Answer 1

First, try drawing the problem:

Answer 2

This looks like a triangle. Complete the side:

Answer 3

Now I think you need to use Trig to find the length of the black line in the second drawing. You want to use the one that is "opposite over adjacent."

Answer 4

Which would be... cos? Right? o:

Answer 5

Both sine and cosine require the hypotenuse, which we also don't know.

Answer 6

Oh o: I forgot the name of the other one >< I've been trying to play catch up since I'm almost a week behind so concentrating is hard rn.

Answer 7

I wanna say tangent but I don't think that's right.

Answer 8

It's tangent:
\[tangent(A) = \frac{opposite}{adjacent}\]
To find the height, we need to multiply both sides by adjacent:
\[opposite = tangent(A) * adjacent\]
Where A is the angle we are given.

Answer 9

Remember SOHCAHTOA (sin is opp/hyp, cos is adj/hyp, tan is opp/adj).

Answer 10

So it would be Tan(78)*200=x?

Answer 11

Oh haha xD I forgot that. I learned that thing like 2 years ago?

Answer 12

Yep, that should do it.
lol, yeah, it's an oldie but a goodie.

Answer 13

Thanks ^^ Hopefully I'll be able to catch up quicker now that I know what I'm doing again.

Answer 14

You're welcome. It's usually faster to relearn something than learning it the first time.

Answer 15

Yeah cause it just takes the one spark to remember it xD