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)\"\" \"About 
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\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( "\"24.5-22.5%2Acos%28x%29\"

\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( "\"graph%28400%2C400%2C-60%2C420%2C-5%2C50%2C24.5-22.5%2Acos%28%28pi%2F180%29x%29%2C28%29\"

\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( "\"24.5-22.5%2Acos%28x%29+=+28\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"-22.5%2Acos%28x%29+=+3.5\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"cos%28x%29+=+arccos%28-3.5%2F22.5%29\"

\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( "\"162.1%2F360+=+0.450\" to 3 decimal places.

\n" ); document.write( "Then, since the period of revolution is 10 minutes, the ride is above 28 feet for 4.5 minutes each revolution.

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