How do i figure out this question?

There are two roads, one has a grade of 20% the other has an elevation of 15 degrees. Which road would be steeper?

Hmmm. What is the tangent of 15 degrees? is it greater than .20?

The 20% usually refers to the slope of the road.

But the slope of a line is the tangent of the angle it makes with a horizontal
so if tan Ø = ,2
Ø = 11.3°

so ......

If it takes 3.7 seconds for a sound to reach the bottom of the ocean how deep is the water

To figure out which road is steeper, we need to compare the grade and the elevation of the two roads.

The grade of a road is typically measured as a percentage and represents the vertical rise of the road per horizontal distance. In this case, one road has a grade of 20%. To interpret this, we can say that for every 100 units of horizontal distance traveled on this road, there is a vertical rise of 20 units.

The elevation of a road is measured in degrees and represents the angle at which the road is inclined from the horizontal plane. In this case, the other road has an elevation of 15 degrees.

To compare the two roads, we can convert the grade into an equivalent angle. We know that a slope angle can be calculated using the equation:

angle = arctan(grade/100)

For the road with a grade of 20%, the angle would be:

angle = arctan(20/100) = arctan(0.2) ≈ 11.31 degrees

Comparing this to the road with an elevation of 15 degrees, we can see that the road with an elevation of 15 degrees is steeper.