Question

On her way home, Carrie must drive up a hill that has an incline of 5 degrees. If Carrie’s vehicle stops at an elevation 0.25 miles higher than where she started, how far did she drive up the hill?

Answer 1

Inclination = 5 °
Difference in elevation = 0.25 miles
=0.25 miles.
Distance up the hill
= opposite / sin(angle)
= 0.25/sin(5°)
= 0.25/0.087156
=2.868 miles

Answer 2

2.868 miles up hill

Explanation:

We have the triangle in the attached image, applying trigonometry we have that

`sin5=(0.25)/(x)`

solving for x

`x=(0.25)/(sin5)`

x=0.25/0.087=2.868 miles