Question

One friend claims that to find the height of the platform, you need to use the tangent ratio. Explain why her approach is or is not a reasonable

approach to finding the height of the platform.

Find the height of the platform. Explain the trigonometric ratio that you chose and why you chose it. Show your work.

Find the horizontal distance from the bottom of the ramp to the bottom of the platform. Show your work.

Answer 1

• x ≈ 1.64 m
• y ≈ 3.09 m

Explanation:

• ABC is right triangle
• Angle A and side AB given
• Side BC to be found

Use sine of A to find the length of missing side:

• opposite/hypotenuse = sin
• BC/AB = sin A
• x/3.5 = sin 28
• x = 3.5* sin 28
• x = 3.5*0.47 ≈ 1.64 m

Horizontal distance y is:

• y = √3.5²-1.64²= √9.5604 = 3.09 m