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01106115 Ex-1 Find the height of a tree if the angle of elevation Of its top Changes from 25 to 50° as the Observer advanced 15 meters toward

it's base​

1 Answer

3 votes

Answer:

about 11.5 m

Explanation:

You want the height of a tree when the angles of elevation to its top are 25° and 50° from points 15 m apart.

Tangent

The tangent relation between angles and sides in a right triangle is ...

Tan = Opposite/Adjacent

In the attached diagram, this means ...

tan(25°) = TX/AX

tan(50°) = TX/BX

Solution

The difference between AX and BX is known, so we can rearrange this to ...

AX -BX = 15 = TX/tan(25°) -TX/tan(50°)

15·tan(25°)·tan(50°) = TX(tan(50°) -tan(25°) . . . multiply by tan(25°)tan(50°)

TX = 15·tan(25°)·tan(50°)/(tan(50°)-tan(25°) ≈ 11.5 . . . . meters

The height of the tree is about 11.5 meters.

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Additional comment

The value of the height can be computed by finding each tangent only once if we use ...

TX = 15/(1/tan(25°) -1/tan(50°))

You recognize 1/tan(x) = cot(x) = tan(90°-x), so this is ...

TX = 15/(tan(65°) -tan(40°))

01106115 Ex-1 Find the height of a tree if the angle of elevation Of its top Changes-example-1
01106115 Ex-1 Find the height of a tree if the angle of elevation Of its top Changes-example-2
User Fernando Petrelli
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