Question

A forest ranger looking out from a ranger's station can see a forest fire at a 35 degree angle of depression. The ranger's position is 100 feet above the ground. How far is it from the ranger's station to the fire? Round your answer to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

To find the distance from the ranger's station to the forest fire, we can use the tangent function and the information given in the problem. The tangent of an angle is defined as the ratio of the opposite side to the adjacent side in a right triangle. In this case, we can use the angle of depression to the forest fire, the height of the ranger's station above the ground, and the distance from the ranger's station to the forest fire to form a right triangle.

We can then use the tangent function to find the distance from the ranger's station to the forest fire as follows:

tan(35°) = opposite/adjacent

opposite = tan(35°) * adjacent

opposite = tan(35°) * 100 feet

opposite = 0.7392 * 100 feet

opposite = 73.92 feet

Therefore, the distance from the ranger's station to the forest fire is approximately 74 feet. To the nearest tenth of a foot, this is 73.9 feet.