Question

PLEASE HELP!!! This is a trigonometry question. A conveyor is used to lift to a shredder. The most efficient operating angle of elevation for the conveyor is 36.2 degrees. The paper is to be elevated 17.0 m. What length of conveyor is needed?

Answer 1

You can use the sin function to solve this.

Think of a triangle with the conveyor being the longest side (hypotenuse). The height (the vertical side) is H=17m. The angle of elevation is a=36.2. We are looking for length of the hypotenuse, L.

The sin is the ratio of height to hypotenuse: sin(36.2) = H/L = 17/L

Now solve for L:

L = 17/sin(36.2) = 17m/0.59 = 28.78m

The conveyor needs to be approx. 28.8m long to get close to the max. efficient angle.