Question

Your town’s Public Library is building a new wheelchair ramp to its entrance. By the law, the maximum angle of incline for the ramp is 4.76°. The ramp will have a vertical rise of 2 ft. What is the shortest horizontal distance that the ramp can span?

A.) 15.3ft

B.) 3.5 ft

C.) 24.0 ft

D.) 9.5 ft

Answer 1

Use trigonometry to find the ramp distance.

sin(4.76°) = 2/r

Let r = ramp distance in feet

r = 2/sin(4.76°)

r = 24.1015718106

Round off to the nearest foot.

Doing so we get r = 24 feet.

The ramp is 24.0 feet long.

Answer: Choice C