An observer (O) is located 400 feet from a building (B). The observer notices a kite (K) flying at a 29° angle of elevation from his line of sight. How high is the kite flying over the building? You must show all work and calculations to receive full credit.

Question

anonymous · Answer

So first off what im thinking i need to do is take H and say to use TOA becaue that is opposite  over hypotenuse... but would the angle of 29 be the opposite and the length of 400 be the adjacent?

anonymous · Answer

@sourwing can you help or do you know anyone who can?

anonymous · Answer

@linda3

linda3 · Answer

@Ashleyisakitty

linda3 · Answer

I would help- I'm not good at math. I will try to find somebody that can help though!  :)

anonymous · Answer

my file wont attach for some reason ive  tried  twice

linda3 · Answer

@ParthKohli he's smart ;-)

linda3 · Answer

have you tried downloading it than uploading it?

anonymous · Answer

its on my desktop but wont show when i tell it to attach it says its there but doesnt  send

linda3 · Answer

what if you took a picture of it than uploading it here?

anonymous · Answer

ill try putting it in a word doc

parthkohli · Answer

Let's try to draw this for simplicity.|dw:1397078143091:dw|

anonymous · Answer

ok lets use that uploads wont work

parthkohli · Answer

And yeah, we're looking for the opposite side given the adjacent side.  So we'll use tan which is opposite divided by adjacent.

anonymous · Answer

So i was correct with my first statement?

parthkohli · Answer

Of course you were.

But the angle of 29 is not the opposite.  The side opposite to the angle is the opposite we're talking about.

Look at that drawing... the opposite side is the height of the kite!

parthkohli · Answer

Let's see how it goes.$$\tan(29^{\circ}) = \dfrac{\text{height of the kite}}{400 ~ \rm feet}$$

parthkohli · Answer

What's the value of $\tan(29^{\circ})$

anonymous · Answer

the value would be... 0.554?

parthkohli · Answer

Yes, your calculator got that one spot on!

And now you have$$0.554 = \dfrac{\rm height ~ of ~ the ~ kite}{400}$$

parthkohli · Answer

Can you solve this equation?

anonymous · Answer

so first we would take 400 and multiply iy by 400 to cancel it out while multiplying .554 by 400 to get the height?

parthkohli · Answer

Righty!

anonymous · Answer

so the kite would be 221.6 feet above the building?

parthkohli · Answer

That's right.  By the way, the question is somewhat wrong.  :P

It tells us that the building has no height at all.

anonymous · Answer

i got it from my math assignment lol idk why but tons of this stuff on here is kinda messed up the teacher doesnt like me cause i always call him out on it.

parthkohli · Answer

Hmm, OK.

parthkohli · Answer

But yes, that'd be your answer.

anonymous · Answer

Thanks for the help!

parthkohli · Answer

No problem. :)

anonymous · Answer

This helped so much! Thank you @ParthKohli

parthkohli · Answer

No problem!