Question

A hockey net is 1.8 metres wide. A player stands in front of the net. The distance from the one goal post to the player is 5 metres. The distance from the other goal post to the player is 6 metres. Find the angle through which the player must shoot to score a goal.

Answer 1

Consider the drawing below:

The triangle shown represents the situation.

Using the law of cosines it follows:

`\cos x=(6^2+5^2-1.8^2)/(2(6)(5))`

Solve for x

`\begin{gathered} \cos x=0.96267 \\ x=15.7 \end{gathered}`

Therefore the required angle is x=15.7