Answer:
approximately 3.84 degrees.
Explanation:
The angle of depression is the angle between a horizontal line and the line of sight when looking downwards. We can use trigonometry to calculate this angle.
Let's draw a diagram to represent the situation:
A
/|
/ |
18.5/ | 280
/ |
/θ |
/_____|
B
Here, point A represents the top of the sledding run, point B represents the bottom of the run, and θ is the angle of depression we want to find.
We can see that AB is the hypotenuse of a right triangle, and the vertical drop of 18.5 yards is the opposite side. We can use the tangent function to relate the opposite side to the adjacent side, which is the horizontal distance of the run:
tan θ = opposite/adjacent
tan θ = 18.5/280
Now we can use a calculator to find the value of the tangent:
θ = tan^(-1) (18.5/280)
θ ≈ 3.84 degrees
Therefore, the angle of depression of the run is approximately 3.84 degrees.