Question

The press box at a basketball park is 38.0ft above the ground. A reporter in the press box looks at an angle of 15 degrees below the horizontal to see second base. What is the horizontal distance from the press box to second base?

Answer 1

The press box at a basketball park is 38.0 ft above the ground.

A reporter in the press box looks at an angle of 15 degrees below the horizontal to see the second base.

Let us draw the diagram to better understand the problem.

Here x is the horizontal distance from the press box to the second base.

With respect to angle 15°, the opposite side is 38 ft and the adjacent side is x.

Recall from the trigonometric ratios,

`\begin{gathered} \tan \theta=(opposite)/(adjacent) \\ \tan 15\degree=(38)/(x) \\ x=(38)/(\tan 15\degree) \\ x=141.8\; ft \end{gathered}`

Therefore, the horizontal distance from the press box to the second base is 141.8 ft.