An airplane pilot over the Pacific sights an atoll at an angle of depression of 5°. At this time, the horizontal distance from the airplane to the atoll is 4629 meters. What is the height of the plane to the nearest meter?
So let's draw our figure first The angle of depression is 5° which makes alternate interior angle which is inside the triangle also 5° |dw:1614894750598:dw|
So we have an angle and we have the side opposite it and side adjacent to it. Which trigonometric function would we use to solve for 'x' which is our height?
Would we use sin? or cos? or tan? @airamchavez
Would it be tan
That would be correct!! Can you set it up? tan (angle) = opposite / adjacent
tan(5)=x/4629?
There you go!! So now in your calculator, make sure you're in degrees (and not radians) and calculate tan(5)
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