SOLUTION: how high is kite, if 180' of string is let out and the angle of elevation of the kite is 47 degrees?
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-> SOLUTION: how high is kite, if 180' of string is let out and the angle of elevation of the kite is 47 degrees?
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Use your calculator. Make sure it is set to degrees rather than radians.
Of course, this is only a rough approximation because it doesn't consider the catenary curve of the kite string. The string itself has weight which pulls the string into a curve, i.e. the hypotenuse of the right triangle that is assumed in order to solve this is something less than 180 feet. The problem is that you can't calculate the difference in length between the curved string from the ground to the kite and the straight line from the ground to the kite representing the triangle hypotenuse without knowing the weight per unit length of the string.
