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.

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.

simplymarie_x · Answer

attachment

luffingsails · Answer

What is the cosine(x) in terms of the lengths of sides of the triangle?

kl0723 · Answer

as @luffingsails said you can just use the cosine of x since it's said you know the angle already

kl0723 · Answer

recall that cosine = adjacent side over the hyp

kl0723 · Answer

$$Cos(x)=\frac{ y }{ Hyp }$$

kl0723 · Answer

Hyp = CA = distance from C to A from the Sun to the Shooting Star

simplymarie_x · Answer

Oh okay, thank you a ton. I really appreciate it because this question confused me. I had one similar in the past and got it wrong, haha.

kl0723 · Answer

yes, it's not really that bad, it says you have two angles so you can even use sine if you wanted to but cos is really easy :P hope it helped!