SOLUTION: You want to cut down a tree that is 85 ft from your house, which must fall toward your house. You need to find out how tall the tree is. You start at some distance from the tree an
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Question 458282: You want to cut down a tree that is 85 ft from your house, which must fall toward your house. You need to find out how tall the tree is. You start at some distance from the tree and use your handy dandy sextant to determine that the angle of elevation from the ground to the top of the tree is 63.435 degrees. You move 10 feet closer and find the angle has increased to 68.199 degrees. So, how tall is the tree? Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
Let be the smaller of the two angles and be the larger. Let be the distance from the base of the tree to the point where the first angle measurement was taken, then the point where the second angle measure was taken was at feet from the base of the tree. Finally, let represent the height of the tree.
You can do your own arithmetic. Remember to make sure your calculator is in Degrees mode (or use the conversion from degrees to radians). By the way, I measured the angles with my Acme Excelsior 9000 Pro sextant -- couldn't find my Handy Dandy sextant. Got the same answer though. DO NOT chop down that tree.
John
My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it
