A cliff swallow nest is 86 meters above a canyon floor.
The elevation of the nest is −56 meters. What is the elevation of the canyon
floor?
To find the elevation of the canyon floor, we need to subtract the height of the nest from the elevation of the nest.
Elevation of the canyon floor = Elevation of the nest - Height of the nest
Elevation of the canyon floor = -56 meters - (-86 meters)
Remember that subtracting a negative is the same as adding a positive.
Elevation of the canyon floor = -56 meters + 86 meters
Now we can perform the addition:
Elevation of the canyon floor = 30 meters
Therefore, the elevation of the canyon floor is 30 meters.
To find the elevation of the canyon floor, we need to subtract the height of the nest from the elevation of the nest.
Given that the elevation of the nest is -56 meters and the height of the nest is 86 meters above the canyon floor, we can calculate the elevation of the canyon floor using the following formula:
Elevation of canyon floor = Elevation of the nest - Height of the nest
Substituting the values we have:
Elevation of canyon floor = -56 meters - 86 meters
Elevation of canyon floor = -142 meters.
Therefore, the elevation of the canyon floor is -142 meters.
Elevation in this case is a measure of how high a location is relative to sea level.
It's a good idea to draw a vertical line to model this problem, and then put a tick mark on the middle of the line to represent an elevation of 0 ( sea level).
Now put a tick mark at the nest's elevation: -56 m. This number is lower than 0, so this tick mark should be somewhere below the first tick mark.
Now time to think: the nest itself is at -56 m elevation, yet it is 86 m above the canyon floor, or in other words, the canyon floor is 86 m below the nest. Place the tick mark for the canyon floor even further down the line.
I will leave it to you to now work out how far the canyon floor tick is below the sea level tick.