Question

leonard is flying kite he is holding the end of the string at distance of 1.2 m above the ground. if the string is 15 m how long and makes an angle of 40 degrees with the horizontal, how high is the kite above the ground?​

Answer 1

The kite is 10.8 m above the ground.

Explanation:

Here we can make a triangle rectangle like the one shown in the graph below, where we want to find the value of the cathetus X, and that plus 1.2m will be the distance between the kite and the ground.

Notice that X is the opposite cathetus to the 40° angle, then:

We can use the relation:

Sin(θ) = (opposite cathetus)/(hypotenuse)

where, in our case, we have:

θ = 40°

hypotenuse = 15m

opposite cathetus = X

Replacing these in the equation, we get:

Sin(40°) = X/15m

Now we can solve this for X.

Sin(40°)*15m = X = 9.6m

And the actual height of the kite is X + 1.2m

Then:

H = 9.6m + 1.2m = 10.8m

The kite is 10.8 m above the ground.