Question

A boy flying a kite is standing 30 ft from a point directly under the kite. if the string to the kite is 50 ft long, what is the angle of elevation of the kite (the angle between the ground where the boy is standing and the kite string)?

Answer 1

Draw a diagram to illustrate the problem as shown in the figure below.
h = height of the kite above ground.

By definition, the angle of elevation is

`cos \theta = (30)/(50) =0.6`
Therefore

`\theta = cos^(-1) 0.6 = 53.1 \, deg.`

Answer: 53° (nearest integer)