A bird is perched on a light pole that is 13 feet tall. You spot the bird as you're walking across the street. If you are 5 feet tall, and the diagonal distance from you to the bird is 10 feet, what is the angle of elevation you are using to look at the bird? Use the inverse of sine to find your answer and round to the nearest whole degree. the answer is not 7
To find the angle of elevation, we can use the inverse sine function.
Let's label the angle of elevation as θ.
Using the given information, we have:
opposite side = height of the light pole = 13 feet
adjacent side = distance from you to the bird = 10 feet
hypotenuse = diagonal distance from you to the bird = 10 feet
Therefore, we can set up the following trigonometric equation:
sin(θ) = opposite/hypotenuse
sin(θ) = 13/10
To find the angle, we take the inverse sine (arcsin) of both sides:
θ = arcsin(13/10)
Using a calculator, the angle of elevation is found to be approximately 53 degrees.