Question

An observer (O) is located 900 feet from a building (B). The observer notices a helicopter (H) flying at a 49° angle of elevation from his line of sight. How high is the helicopter flying over the building?

a) 900 feet
b) 900×tan⁡(49∘)900×tan(49∘)
c) 900÷tan⁡(49∘)900÷tan(49∘)
d) Not enough information

Answer 1

To find the height of the helicopter flying over the building, use trigonometry and the tangent function to calculate the height.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the height of the helicopter flying over the building, we can use trigonometry. Since the observer is 900 feet from the building, we can form a right triangle with the distance from the observer to the helicopter as the hypotenuse and the height of the helicopter as the opposite side. Using the tangent function, we can calculate the height:

Height = 900 × tan(49°)

By substituting the given angle of elevation, we can find that the helicopter is flying at approximately 1047.95 feet above the building.