Suppose you are standing on the edge of a canyon that is 400 meters high, where two sides of the canyon are at the same height and the walls of the canyon are perfectly vertical. The angle of depression to the bottom of the other side of the canyon is 14.3 degrees. Find the distance to the other side of the canyon. Ignore the height in the computations.

Question

anonymous · Answer

basic tip: the angle of depression is the angle from the horizontal looking down at an object

mathstudent55 · Answer

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anonymous · Answer

why are they right angles

mathstudent55 · Answer

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mathstudent55 · Answer

Because the walls of the canyon are perfectly parallel and the same height.

anonymous · Answer

ohhhhhh ok

mathstudent55 · Answer

Since the walls are perfectly vertical, they are both perfectly perpendicular to the ground.
The ground is horizontal. Two lines perpendicular to the same line are parallel to each other.

mathstudent55 · Answer

Ok.You understand the drawing?

anonymous · Answer

i get it now, i was confused on that part

mathstudent55 · Answer

Ok. It means we have a rectangle. We are looking for x.
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mathstudent55 · Answer

We can use trig of right triangles to find x.

mathstudent55 · Answer

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