55.5k views
3 votes
The sail of a boat is in the shape of a right triangle. Which expression shows the length, in meters, of the sail?

The sail of a boat is a right triangle with an acute angle at the tip equal to 50 degrees and the side of the sail which is the hypotenuse to the right triangle is 7 meters long.

7(tan 50°)
7(sin 50°)
tangent 50 degrees over 7
sine 50 degrees over 7

The sail of a boat is in the shape of a right triangle. Which expression shows the-example-1
User Ctyar
by
3.2k points

1 Answer

1 vote

Answer:

The answer is 7(tan 50°)

Explanation:

So first you need to find which formula you will be using to do this you need to find if you're talking about the hypotenuse, opposite, or adjacent.

The side that measures 7 meters would be the adjacent because its right next to the angle and its not the hypotenuse because its not the largest side

The side which we do not know the length to will be the opposite side because it is opposite from where the angle is.

There are 3 formulas:

sin A = Opposite side/Hypotenuse = BC/AB

cos A = Adjacent side/Hypotenuse = AC/AB

tan A = Opposite side/Adjacent side = BC/AC

There is one formula that has Opposite and Adjacent which is tangent so thats the formula you'll use

Next you plug in the values that you have so your formula will look like this:

Tan 50° = x/7

A will always be where you plug in the angle and then you plug in the information according to what side it is

Every time that x is the numerator you will just multiply both sides by the denominator which gives you:

7(tan 50°)

Which is your answer :))

User Pjozsef
by
3.5k points