Question

A car traveling at 30 mis runs out of gas while traveling up a 10o slope. How far up the hill will the car coast before starting to roll back down

Answer 1

5.21 miles

Step-by-step explanation:

The set up will be a right angle triangle (an inclined plane). The height of the inclined plane is the opposite side of the triangle while the distance traveled by the car along the slope will be the hypotenuse with angle of inclination of 10°.

Using the SOH trigonometry identity i.e sinθ = opposite/hypotenuse

sin 10° = opposite/30

opposite = 30sin10°

opposite = 5.21 miles

Hence the car must have traveled 5.21 miles up the hill before starting to roll back down.