Question

Nick wanted to determine the length of one blade of a windmill. He stood at a point on the ground 440 feet from the windmill's base. Using surveyor's tools, Nick measured the angle between the ground and the highest point reached by the top blade and found it was 38.8°. He measured the angle between the ground and the lowest point of the top blade and found it was 30°. Determine and state a blade's length, x, to the nearest foot.

Answer 1

Answer:There are two right triangles. You need to find the opposite side (the height) of each of them. The difference between the two is the height of the blade, x.

You know the adjacent, 440, and you are looking for the opposite, so you need to use tan for both.

tan (30) = y / 440

y = 440 * tan (30) = 254.034...

tan (38.8) = z / 440

y = 440 * tan (38.8) = 353.769.--

353.8 - 254.0 = 99.8 = 100 feet.

Step-by-step explanation: