Question

From a hot air balloon 2 km​ high, a person looks east and sees one town with angle of depression of 16 degrees. He then looks west to see another town with angle of depression of 84 degrees. What is the distance between the two towns?

Answer 1

Answer:

7km

Explanation:

The angle of depression is congruent to the angle of elevation and can be explained as angle below horizontal in which the person observing an object must view for him/her to view object's that are lower than him/her.

In angle of depression, there is assumption that object is closer to the person observing it, so there is parallel horizontal for both observing and object been observed.

hot air balloon 2 km​ high,

there exist two triangles

From trigonometry

Tanx= opposite/adjacent

Opp= 2km

Adj= X1

first triangle have base length of

Tan(16)=2/X1

X1=2/ tan(16)

X1=6.97

For Second triangle

Tanx= opposite/adjacent

Opp= 2km

Adj= X2

the other with a base length of

X2=2/tan(84)

X2=0.21

Therefore,, the total distance between the two towns is

x1+x2=6.97+0.21=7.18km