A helicopter lowers a rope ladder to a scuba diver floating on the ocean surface. The waves crest at 4ft above the lowest level of the water every 8 seconds.
Write a cosine equation to describe the height of the diver as a function of time t.
The diver can reach 2ft abover her. The lowest rung of the ladderis 3ft above the average level of the water. For about how many consecutive seconds will the ladder be within the diver's reach? Explain.

Question

A helicopter lowers a rope ladder to a scuba diver floating on the ocean surface. The waves crest at 4ft above the lowest level of the water every 8 seconds.
Write a cosine equation to describe the height of the diver as a function of time t.
 The diver can reach 2ft abover her. The lowest rung of the ladderis 3ft above the average level of the water. For about how many consecutive seconds will the ladder be within the diver's reach? Explain.

anonymous · Answer

Cosine equation describing height of the diver is $$y=2\cos \frac{ \pi }{ 4 }t$$. Okay so, the height of the diver is the equation. Also, the height of the ladder is 3. That would equate to the line y = 3. Try to find where they intersect. This will give you the total amount of seconds that the latter will be in reach.

anonymous · Answer

How did you figure out the equation?

anonymous · Answer

The basic equation of a cos function is y=ACos(Bx-C). Plug in the values given in the equation.

anonymous · Answer

ok thanks