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Trigonometry
I.
Answers
89.1875
12.25
33.5
71.0083
42.4147
33 57' 52.2"
13 7' 24.42"
21 30' 0"
59 47' 21.12"
65 11' 0.96"
a) 90 b) 72
Answers
1. a) 0.56 radians, b) 1.66 radians, c) 3.79 radians.
2. a) 171.89 b) 137.51 c) 57.30
3. a) 12 b) 36
4. a) /2radians b) 2/5radians
II. Trigonometric Function
1. A surveyor measures a distance of 12.45 m to the base of a building.The angle of
elevation to the top of the building is 76.78 . What is the height of the building ?
2. The angle of depression from helicopter to a speeding car is 56 . If the helicopter is
flying 600m above the ground, how far is it from the car ?
3. A tightrope walker is about the cross a rope from a dock to the bridge of a boat that is
1.5m above the level of the dock. The rope is 15m long. At what angle of inclination will
the tightrope walker be climbing?
4. A person is standing halfway between two trees that a 3m apart. The angles of elevation
to the tops of the trees are 42 and 36. How much taller is one tree over the other?
5. From a point away from the base of a building, the angle of elevation is 51. From a
point 4m closer to the building, the angle of elevation increases to 67. How tall is the
building ?
6. While driving through the mountains you notice a sign that shows a hill with a 11%
grade. What angle does the road make with the horizontal?
7. A ladder with its foot on a horizontal flat surface rests against a wall. It makes an angle
of 30 with the horizontal. The foot of the ladder is 41 ft from the base of the wall. Find
the height of the point where the ladder touches the wall.
8. A man on the deck of a ship is 15 ft above sea level. He observes that the angle of
elevation of the top of a cliff is 70 and the angle of depression of its base at sea level is
50. Find the height of the cliff and its distance from the ship.
9. The angle of elevation of the top of a tree is 30 o from a point 28 ft away from the foot of
the tree. Find the height of the tree rounded to the nearest feet.
10. From the top of a spire of height 50 ft, the angles of depression of two cars on a straight
road at the same level as that of the base of the spire and on the same side of it are 25
and 40. Calculate the the distance between the two cars.
Answers:
1) 53 2) 724m 3) 5.7 4) 0.3m 5) 10.4m
6) 6.3 7) 24ft. 8) 50ft and 13ft. 9) 16ft. 10) 47ft.
III. Inverse Trigonometric Function
1.A 25 foot tall flagpole casts a 42 feet shadow. What is the angle that the sun hits the
flagpole?
Solution: First, draw a picture. The angle that the sun hits the flagpole is the acute angle
at the top of the triangle, . From the picture, we can see that we need to use the
inverse tangent ratio.
2. Elise is standing on the top of a 50 foot building and spots her friend, Molly across the
street. If Molly is 35 feet away from the base of the building, what is the angle of
depression from Elise to Molly? Elises eye height is 4.5 feet.
Solution: Because of parallel lines, the angle of depression is equal to the angle at
Molly, or . We can use the inverse tangent ratio.
3. To find the escalators angle of elevation, we need to use the inverse sine ratio.
4. The height of a building is 250 ft. What is the angle of elevation from a point on the
level ground 200 ft away from the base of the building?
Solution:
The lengths of opposite and the adjacent legs are known for angle which is the angle
of elevation.
= tan-1 (Opposite LegAdjacent Leg) = tan-1 250200
51.3.
calculator.
5. A person stands at the window of a building so that his eyes are 12.6 m above the
level ground in the vicinity of the building. An object is 58.5 m away from the building on
a line directly beneath the person. Compute the angle of depression of the persons line
of sight to the object on the ground.
Solution: The angle of depression of the line of sight is the angle, , that the line of sight
makes with the horizontal, as shown in the figure to the right. Since the ground is level,
it is parallel to any horizontal line, and so the angle that the line of sight makes with the
ground is equal to as well. As a result, we have
tan= 12.6/58.5
= tan-1 (12.6/58.5)
= tan-1 (0.22)
= 12.40
6. Find the size of angle a
Step 1 The two sides we know are Adjacent (6,750) and Hypotenuse (8,100).
7. A girl is flying her kite with 42 angle of elevation. If she knows the length of the string
of her kitewhich is 300 m, how high is the kite? The triangle formed is shown on the left.
in x= opposite/hypotenuse
Sin42= opposite/300
Opposite= 300sin42
Opposite= 300(.67)
Opposite= 201 m
8. Chelsea walked up a road that has a 20% grade (she could feel it!) to get to her
favorite store. At what angle does the road come up from the ground (at what angle is
the road inclined from the ground)?
Solution:
Remember that the grade of a road can be thought of as
= sin A 1
[Substitute: sin2A + cos2A = 1.]
= sin A
2.Factorize: cos2A - sin2A cos2A
cos2A - sin2A cos2A
= cos2A (1 - sin2A)
[Factor out cos2A.]
= cos2A cos2A
[Substitute:1 - sin2A = cos2A.]
= cos4A
3.Simplify: sin B + cos2B/sinB
sin B + cos2 Bsin B
= sin2 B+cos2 Bsin B
= 1sin B
[Substitute: sin2 B + cos2 B = 1.]
= csc B
4.Simplify: sec - tan2/sec
sec - tan2sec = sec2-tan2sec
= 1sec
[Substitute: sec2 - tan2 = 1.]
= cos
5.Find the value of 1 + sec2(1-sin2).
1 + sec2(1-sin2)
= 1 + sec2 cos2
[Substitute: 1 - sin2 = cos2.]
= 1 + 1cos2 cos2
=1+1=2
6. - (sin A sec Atan A) = ___________.
1 - (sin A sec Atan A)
= 1 - sin A (1cos A)tan A
[Substitute: sec A = 1cos A.]
= 1 - (tan Atan A)
[Substitute sin Acos A = tan A.]
=1-1=0
7.Simplify: sin B 1/cos B
sin B - 1cos B = sin Bcos B - 1cos B
= tan B - sec B
[Substitute: sin Bcos B = tan B and 1cosB = sec B.]
1.The
Find
and
is in the
is in the
and
quadrant and
because it is in the
.
and
, we know that
and
3.Simplify
Solution: Expand this using the difference formula and then simplify.
This is the exact value because we are using the radicals to express exact square roots.
A decimal approximation is 0.9659.
5.What is the exact value of tan(15)?
We can use a difference angle formula noticing that 15 = 45 - 30.
tan(15)
= tan(45 - 30)
=
This expression, which represents the exact value of tan(15), can be rewritten as
follows so that there is no radical in the denominator.
Substitute the values of sine snd cosine of 45 o and 30o in the above to obtain.
sin(15o) = [sqrt(2) / 2][sqrt(3) / 2] - [sqrt(2) / 2][1 / 2]
Use the difference formula for cosine to expand the given expression
cos(x - pi/2) = cos x * cos pi/2 + sin x * sin pi/2
We know sin x but not cos x, we use the identity sin 2x + cos2x = 1 to find cos x.
cos x = (+ or -) SQRT(1 - sin2x)
We know sin y but not cos y, we use the same identity as above sin 2y + cos2y = 1
to find cos y.
cos y = (+ or -) SQRT(1 - sin2y)
We now subtitute sin x, cos x, sin y and cos y by their values in the formula
above.
sin(x + y) = sin x * cos y + cos x * sin y
= [1/5]*[-(1 / 3)SQRT(5)] + [-(1 / 5)SQRT(24)][-2 / 3]
= [-SQRT(5) + SQRT(24)] / 15
9.Find the exact value of cos 15o
Solution:
Think of two angles that you know the value of, that either
add or subtract and give you 15. There are many. One that
comes to mind is 45 and 30.
let = 45 and = 30
Use the above formula for the difference of the cosine
cos 15 = cos(45 - 30) = cos 45 cos 30 + sin 45 sin 30
10. Find the exact value of sin 50o cos 10o + sin 10o cos 50o
Solution:
Match the problem to one of the formulas. Do you see that it
is the sum formula for the sine function?
= sin (50 + 10) = sin 60o
= \/ 3 / 2
2. Double Angle
3. Half Angle
4. Product to Sum
Answer. We have
which gives
Note that the above formulas may be used to transform a sum into a product via the
identities
2. Express
as a product.
Answer. We have
Answer. We have
and
Hence
and
Answer. Many ways may be used to tackle this problem. Let us use the above formulas.
We have
Hence
Since
equation
are
Answer. We have
, the equation
gives
gives
and the
Hence
which implies
Since
, we get
Start by adding the sum and difference identities for the sine.
The other three productsum identities can be verified by adding or subtracting other
sum and difference identities.
6. Write cos 3 x cos 2 x as a sum.
These identities are valid for degree or radian measure whenever both sides of the
identity are defined.
7.
Solve for by adding the following two equations and then dividing by 2. Solve for by
subtracting the two equations and then dividing by 2.
V. Solution of Angles
1. Right Triangle
1. A 16 foot ladder is leaning against a house. It touches the bottom of a window that is
12 feet 6 inches above the ground. What is the measure of the angle that the ladder
forms with the ground?
Let x equal the measure of the angle the
ladder forms with the ground. A picture of
the problem is drawn to the right.
We have the side opposite to the angle in
question as well as the hypotenuse. I can
write the unknown in terms of the known
using the definition of sine:
. First I need to get every thing in terms of inches: 12 ft = 144 in. ,so 12 ft
6 in = 150 in. and
= 192 in so
. Notice the units cancel out.
You should always get a unitless number when you have a trigonometric ratio. Using the
inverse sin on a calculator I get the measure of the angle is equal to
.
2.
a. I would use the converse of the Pythagorean
Theorem to solve this problem.
b. The converse of the Pythagorean Theorem tells
me that if
then the pole would
be at a right angle with the ground when the string
was 17 ft.
So compute
and
since
when the string is 17 ft.
So I have
or
4. The Brook's are installing a wide-screen television with a 60-inch diagonal. Their
entertainment center is 48 inches wide by 36 inches high, will the television fit in their
current entertainment center?
After reading the problem I draw the following:
I want to find d to see if the television with a 60inch diagonal will fit into a rectangle that is 48inches by 36 inches. I can use the Pythagorean
Theorem to put my knowns in terms of my
unknown:
or
I get:
I am not quite done, I must add the distance the triangle is above the ground to get the
height I am looking for. The height of the dam is 48.77 m + 1.73 m = 50.50 m.
6. Given an acute angle and one side. Solve the right triangle ABC if angle A is
36, and side c is 10 cm.
Make the unknown side the numerator of a fraction, and make the known side the
denominator.
Unknown
Known
2.
a
10
Unknown
Known
3.
= sin 36
4.
a
10
a
10
= sin 36 = .588
To see the answer, pass your mouse over the colored area.
To cover the answer again, click "Refresh" ("Reload").
To consult the Table, click here.
Unknown
Known
b
10
= cos 36 = .809
b = 10 .809 = 8.09 cm
8. To measure the width of a river. Two trees stand opposite one another, at points
A and B, on opposite banks of a river.
Distance AC along one bank is perpendicular to BA, and is measured to be 100 feet.
Angle ACB is measured to be 79. How far apart are the trees; that is, what is the
width w of the river?
Unknown
=
Known
w
100
=
w=
tan 79.
100 tan 79
Solution. The angle of depression is the angle below straight ahead -- horizontal -that an oberver must look in order to see something below the observer. Thus in
order to see the boat, the lighthouse keeper must look down 6.
Now, the triangle formed by the lighthouse and the distance d of the boat from
the lighthouse, is right-angled. And since the angle of depression is 6, then the
alternate angle is also 6. (Euclid, I. 29.)
If d is the distance of a boat from the lighthouse, then
d
= cot 6
= 9.514, from the Table.
100
Therefore,
d = 951.4 meters.
10. Given two sides of a right triangle. Solve the right triangle ABC given that
side c = 25 cm and side b = 24 cm.
252
=
a2 =
625 576 = 49
a=
Next, to find angle A, we have
cos A =
24
96
= 7.
25
100
=
.96