Question 1103281: how can a surveyor determine the width of a river by only standing on one side of the river? hint: he/she has a measuring tape.
Answer by josmiceli(19441)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! He can put a marker ( like a stick ) opposite from
where he wants to know the river's width.
Then he walks some large distance
along the river's edge and he
lays off a distance along the bank ( say 1 ft )
with the measuring tape
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Then he lays out the tape along his sight line
to the previous point on the opposite bank
Then measures back to 1 ft away and checks the
perpendicular from the banks line to the sight line.
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If that distance is also 1 ft.
then he has a 1 - 1 - sqrt(2) triangle, which is
similar to a larger 1 - 1 - sqrt(2) triangle whose
legs are [ distance he has walked along the bank ]
and [ the width of the river where he started ]
So, all he has to do is measure how far he has
walked along the bank
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Hope this helps. Other tutors may possibly
have a better way to do this.
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