Question

The rattler roller coaster is 66 ft tall. if you are at the top of the roller coaster and your friend larry is on the ground 35 ft away from the base of the coaster, what is the angle of depression from the top of the roller coaster to the spot where larry is standing? round to the nearest hundredth.

Answer 1

Use ratio of tan to find the angle of depression
tan of an angle = side in front of the angle / side adjacent to the angle

Plug in the numbers
tan α = 35/66
α = arctan (35/66)
α = 27.937...
to the nearest hundredth
α = 27.94°