Question

A blimp provides aerial television views of a football game. The television camera sights the stadium at a 7degrees angleof depression. The altitude of the blim is 400 meters. Which of the following is the line-of-sight distance from the television camera to the base of the stadium? Round to the nearest meter.

1. 403m
2. 3,257m
3. 3,282m
4. 4,500m

Answer 1

C. 3282 m

Explanation:

We have the scheme of the exercise in the figure attached to the answer.

Now, we have to calculate the longest side of the right triangle, that is, the hypotenuse. We only know the opposite side of the triangle so we will apply the sine formula, which is as follows:

Sin w = Opposite side / Hypotenuse

We know that w is 7 degrees and that the opposite side is 400 meters.

Replacing and organizing we have:

Hypotenuse = 400 / sin 7 ° = 3282.2 meters.

Hypotenuse is equal to 3282 meters.