WPP #12: Unit O Concept 10: Solving angle of elevation and depression word problems

Problems

a). Billy Bob Joe Ray Eugene III decided he take a break from his electric banjo to go visit the Empire State Building. When he was walking he saw it. From the ground, it's angle of elevation is 23.5 degrees. He knows that the building is 1250 feet tall. How far is he from the base building? 










http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Empire_State_Building_from_the_Top_of_the_Rock.jpg





b). When he is on top of the Empire State he notices his favorite pizza place. He is hungry and wants to see how far it is. From the Building to the Pizza Place, the angle of depression is 35degrees. How far is the Pizza Place from the Empire state building?



http://haysvilleonline.com/hol/archives/625-The-Pizza-Place.html

Solutions

a). To find the how far Billy Bob Joe Ray Eugene III is from the building we have to use tan since we know the opposite and the angle. We need to find the adjacent so we use Tan23.5=1250/x because tangent is opposite/ adjacent. We manipulate it so we get x alone on one side so we get x=1250/tan23.5. We plug that in and get 2874.803 feet. So Billy Bob Joe Ray Eugene III still has some walking to do.


b).  To solve this one we have to use tangent because need to find the adjacent. We use Tan35=1250/x. We need to manipulate it to get the x alone. We should get x=1250/sin35.
when we plug it in and we get 1785.185 ft. This means our buddy here has to suck it up and eat a burger from cross the street.