a cliff is 125ft high. the angle of depression of a ship from the top of the cliff is 14.6 degrees. determine the distance of the ship from the foot of the cliff.
so the angle to the right of the 90 is 14.6 and the side opp. that is 125ft. how do i find the x. wat function would i use.? tan doesnt work as i thought it would.
sure it does
tan 14.6 = 125/x
x = 125/tan14.6
To find the distance (x) of the ship from the foot of the cliff, you can use trigonometric functions. In this case, we can use the tangent function.
The tangent of an angle is defined as the ratio of the length of the side opposite the angle to the length of the side adjacent to the angle.
In this scenario, the angle of depression is 14.6 degrees, and the length of the side opposite the angle is the height of the cliff, which is 125ft. We want to find the length of the side adjacent to the angle, which is the distance of the ship from the foot of the cliff, denoted as x.
So, we can set up the equation:
tan(14.6) = 125 / x
To solve for x, we can rearrange the equation:
x = 125 / tan(14.6)
Using a calculator, you can find the value of tan(14.6) and then plug it into the equation to calculate the distance x.