Question

A boat heading out to sea starts out at Point A, at a horizontal distance of 1035 feet from a lighthouse/the shore. From that point, the boat’s crew measures the angle of elevation to the lighthouse’s beacon-light from that point to be 8 degrees At some later time, the crew measures the angle of elevation from point B to be 5 degrees . Find the distance from point A to point B. Round your answer to the nearest foot if necessary.

Answer 1

Answer: Let's assume that the distance between the lighthouse and point B is x. Then, we can use the tangent function to set up an equation involving the angles of elevation:

tan(8°) = (height of lighthouse) / (distance from A to lighthouse)

tan(5°) = (height of lighthouse) / x

Since the height of the lighthouse is the same in both equations, we can set them equal to each other:

tan(8°) = tan(5°) * (distance from A to lighthouse) / x

Solving for x:

x = (tan(5°) * 1035) / tan(8°)

x ≈ 14416

So the distance from point A to point B is approximately 14,416 feet.

Explanation: