Question

The city of Denver is located approximately one mile (1.61 km) above sea level. Assume you are standing on a beach in Los Angeles, California, at sea level; estimate the angle of the resultant vector with respect to the horizontal axis between your location in California and Denver.

a) between 1 degrees and 2 degrees

b) between 0.5 degrees and 0.9 degrees

c) between 0.11 degrees and 0.45 degrees

d) between 0.06 degrees and 0.10 degrees

e) less than 0.05 degrees
the power-point says the answer is D, but how do i solve it?
thank you in advance

Answer 1

As a thought, I'd say that you need to know how far D and LA are apart in km. If the q doesn't give you that, then it's presumably down to a map, or some other such way of working out their separation distance. Once you've got that distance, and assume that it's a horizontal distance, then you' ve got a right angled triangle. in "normal" trigonometry, it would tan angle = opposite/adjacent. But for small angles, tan angle is approx equal to the angle, I think, as with the sine of a small angle.