Question

You are standing on the second floor balcony looking down at a car 50 feet away. Your line of sight is 15 feet above the ground. What is the angle of depression to the nearest tenth of a degree?

Answer 1

Use tangent

• tanØ=Perpendicular/Base
• tanx=15/50
• tanx=3/10
• tanx=0.3
• x=tan^{-1}(0.3)
• x=16.7°

Answer 2

• 16.7°

Explanation:

Let the angle is x

Imagine the right triangle with the angle x, with side opposite to angle x 15 ft and the adjacent side is 50 ft.

Use trigonometry:

• tangent = opposite / adjacent
• tan x = 15/50
• tan x = 0.3
• x = arctan 0.3
• x = 16.7° (rounded)