Please help me figure this out.
If a 15 meter telephone is leaning over such that its top is 10 meters
directly above the ground, at what angle, to the nearest degree, does the
pole make with the ground?
Answers:
a) 19 degrees
b) 34 degrees
c) 42 degrees
d) 48 degrees
e) 56 degrees
The side OPPOSITE angle A is 10
The HYPOTENUSE is 15
There are three basic trig relations:
, , and
Only one of these contains both of what you are given,
the OPPOSITE and the HYPOTENUSE, so therefore we must use
Use the inverse sine key on your calculator with "10/15" and
you'll get:
41.8103149° which rounds to 42°.
The answer is (c).
[By the way, statistics have shown that on multiple
choice tests, the answer (c) is the correct answer
more often than any other. Therefore any time you
have no idea which is the correct answer, can't
eliminate (c) and you have to guess, always guess (c).
There is no guarantee that (c) will be the right
answer, but it has a better chance than the others if
you must guess.]
Edwin