Problema Solution
A six-inch bat is hanging upside down in a cave. The angle of depression from the bat to the feet of an observer is sixty degrees. the distance from the bat to the observer is 45 feet. to the nearest tenth of a foot, how tall is the cave?
Answer provided by our tutors
Angles of depression work hand in hand with trigonometry. You take the TAN of the triangle since you are given the length of the opposite side and the adjacent side (of the angle.) Tan 30 = (x-6) / 540. (Remember you convert the 45 into inches by multiplying it by 12.) Solve for x.x = | 6 + 540tan30 | (You take the absolute value because you're dealing with distance, and the answer provides the direction as well). x = 3464.878846 inches = the distance from the cave floor to the cave ceiling. (To convert it into feet, divide by 12 and get 288.7399038)