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What is the distance BC between the two horizontal parallel bars?

4 divided by cos 45 degrees
4 sin 45°
4 divided by tan 45 degrees
4 tan 45°

What is the distance BC between the two horizontal parallel bars? 4 divided by cos-example-1
User Badlogic
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One thing you should notice is that the transverse line and the parallel line form a right triangle. We are told that the base is 4 and the angle between the hypotenuse and the leg is 45°

From this we can solve for the second leg. Here's the list of trig functions

sinФ = opposite/hypotenuse
cosФ = adjacent/hypotenuse
tanФ = opposite/adjacent

Since we are only given the adjacent and we are trying to solve for the opposite leg, we can deduce we use tanФ. So we get


tan45 = x/4

Multiply by 4 to isolate x and we get


4*tan45 = x
Hopes this helps!
User Parmeet
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