SOLUTION: This is Applications of Trigonometry, that involves the law of sines. I can't figure out the diagram. After that I would know what to do. A huge mound of dirt is near a construc

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Question 957691: This is Applications of Trigonometry, that involves the law of sines. I can't figure out the diagram. After that I would know what to do.
A huge mound of dirt is near a construction site. Andrew wants to find out how high the mound is. He measures the angle to the top of the mound to be 57 degrees. Then he walks 8 feet away from the base of the mound and measures the angle to the top of the mound again to be 35 degrees. To the nearest tenth of a foot, what is the height of the mound?

Answer by Theo(13342) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
your diagram is shown below:

$$$

the height of your mound is h.
the distance between the center of the mound and the 57 degree angle is x.
the distance between the center of the mound and the 35 degree angle is x + 8.

tan(57) = h/x

tan(35) = h/(x+8)

solve for x in these equations to get:

x = h / tan(57)

x = h / tan(35) - 8

replace x with h / tan(57) in the second equation to get:

h / tan(57) = h / tan(35) - 8

solve for h in this equation to get h = %28-8+%2A+tan%2835%29+%2A+tan%2857%29%29+%2F+%28tan%2835%29+-+tan%2857%29%29

i'm assuming you know how to solve for h in that equation.
if you don't, let me know and i'll step you through it.

the equation of h = %28-8+%2A+tan%2835%29+%2A+tan%2857%29%29+%2F+%28tan%2835%29+-+tan%2857%29%29 gets you h = 10.27299966.

now that you know h, you can solve for x.

tan(57) = h/x is the equation you start with.

solve for x in this equation to get x = h / tan(57).

use the value of h you just solved for to get x = 10.27299966 / tan(57) which results in x = 6.671363981.

you can now confirm that your answer for h is correct.

tan(57) = h/x becomes tan(57) = 10.27299966 / 6.671363981 which becomes tan(57) = 1.539864964.

use your calculator to find tan(57) = 1.539864964.

since they're the same, your value of h and x is good for tan(57).

x + 8 is equal to 6.671363981 + 8 which is equal to 14.671363981.

tan(35) = h / (x+8) becomes tan(35) = 10.27299966 / 14.671363981 which becomes tan(35) = .7002075382.

use your calculator to find tan(35) = .7002075382.

since they're the same, your value of h and (x+8) is good for tan(35).

the height of your mound is 10.27299966 feet which rounds to 10.3 feet.