Question

A shooting star forms a right triangle with the Earth and the sun as shown below:


A scientist measures the angle x and the distance y between the Earth and the sun. Using complete sentences, explain how the scientist can use only these two measurements to calculate the distance between the sun and the shooting star.

Answer 1

@carolinar7

Answer 2

@mathway

Answer 3

@andrearchat

Answer 4

@Nnesha

Answer 5

@teagirl7630

Answer 6

@andrearchat

Answer 7

you have a right triangle
the trig ratios from a right triangle are:

sin A = opposite/hypotenuse
cos A = adjacent/hypotenuse
tan A = opposite/adjacent

given angle "x" and adjacent side "y", we want to find opposite side BA
thus we use the tangent ratio

tan(x) = BA/y

solving for unknown side BA
BA = y*tan(x)

Answer 8

I think you could use\[\cos x=\frac{ y }{ h }\]

Answer 9

No tangent is wrong I pretty sure its Cosine

Answer 10

@andrearchat

Answer 11

yeah i think you would use cosine because you have the adjacent side and you are trying to find the hyp

Answer 12

Yes

Answer 13

its tan
http://openstudy.com/study#/updates/53cac521e4b0bff525b19faf

Answer 14

I dont get why its tan

Answer 15

click the link

Answer 16

I did it said cos

Answer 17

yes it does say cos

Answer 18

@ganeshie8

Answer 19

Answer :- The scientist would need to use the cosine ratio in trigonometry to evaluate the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

Answer 20

Ya I agree

Answer 21

so i could say
Because the scientist is given the adjacent side and they want to find the hyp they would need to use cos. Cos= adj/hyp.

Answer 22

Ya thats good

Answer 23

yeah

Answer 24

thank you guys!!!!!