SOLUTION: (8) While returning from a chartered fishing trip, Jason decides to make a bungee jump off the harbor bridge. When he gets the sextant out of the case, the boat is passing the chan

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Question 54100: (8) While returning from a chartered fishing trip, Jason decides to make a bungee jump off the harbor bridge. When he gets the sextant out of the case, the boat is passing the channel bouy, which is 40 yards beyond the bridge. He accurately measures a 45 degree angle from the horizon up to the jump off point on the bridge. All of his bungee cords stretch twice their measured length. Which bungee cord would give him the maximum safe jump?

Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You can use a little trigonometry to solve this problem.
Imagine a right triangle in which the perpendicular height of the bridge above the river surface is the height (h) of the triangle.
The distance (d) from the channel bouy (40 yds) is the base of the right triangle.
The hypotenuse would be the line-of-sight from the bouy to the bridge.
The angle (of elevation) between the base and the hypotenuse was measured at 45 degrees.
Use the fact that the tangent of this angle is the ratio of the side opposite the angle (that's the height of the bridge) over the side adjacent to the angle (that's the base).
But the tangent of 45 degrees = 1, so:
and
yds. This is the height of the bridge above the river surface.
Since the bungee stretches to twice its measured length, then Jason should use a 20-yard (60-foot) bungee for his jump.