Question

Valerie drives 400 meters up a hill that makes an angle of 20° with thehorizontal. To the nearest tenth of a meter what horizontal distance hasshe covered? A.425.7mt B.375.9mt C.1169.5mt or D.136.8mt

Answer 1

Given:

Valerie drives 400 meters up a hill that makes an angle of 20° with the horizontal.

To find:

The horizontal distance she has covered.

Solution:

The figure showing the scenario is as follows:

Let the horizontal distance traveled be x meters.

The horizontal distance traveled can be obtained using the trigonometric function cosine.

In the figure,

`\begin{gathered} \cos 20=(x)/(400) \\ 0.94=(x)/(400) \\ x=400*0.93969 \\ x=375.877 \end{gathered}`

Thus, the horizontal distance covered is 375.9 ft.

Thus, option B is correct.