document.write( "Question 1149303: A Ferris wheel is 45 meters in diameter and boarded from a platform that is 2 meters above the ground. The six o'clock position on the Ferris wheel is level with the loading platform. The wheel completes 1 full revolution in 10 minutes. How many minutes of the ride are spent higher than 28 meters above the ground?
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Algebra.Com's Answer #770639 by greenestamps(13203)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! \n" ); document.write( "The height above the ground is a sinusoidal function. \n" ); document.write( "The minimum height is 2; the maximum height is 2+45 = 47; the midline is (2+47)/2 = 24.5. \n" ); document.write( "We can model a revolution of the Ferris wheel as starting at the loading platform, which is the minimum height of the ride; so we can model the height with a negative cosine function: \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "For this problem, we don't need to use the 10-minute rotation time of the Ferris wheel in our function; we can use a \"plain\" cosine function and simply determine what fraction of one revolution is spent above 28 feet. \n" ); document.write( "Here is a graph of a bit more than one period of the function, along with the constant function 28, showing the ride at its minimum height at 0 degrees of revolution and again at 360 degrees: \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "To find the fraction of a period during which the height of the ride is above 28 feet, you can use a graphing calculator to find the points of intersection of the two graphs. \n" ); document.write( "Algebraically, you can find the two angles when the height of the ride is 28 feet by solving the equation \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "You can find those angles by either of those methods; I leave that to you. \n" ); document.write( "The final answer is that the ride is at or above 28 feet for approximately 162.1 degrees of every 360-degree revolution. \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "Then, since the period of revolution is 10 minutes, the ride is above 28 feet for 4.5 minutes each revolution. \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " |