Question

A kite is 85 feet high with 100 feet of string let out. What is the angle of elevation of the string with the ground? Please show all work.

Answer 1

Answer:

  58°

Step-by-step explanation:

A right triangle can be drawn to model the geometry of the problem. The hypotenuse of the triangle is the length of the string, 100 ft. The side opposite the angle is the height of the kite above the ground, 85 ft.

The mnemonic SOH CAH TOA reminds you of the relationship between sides and angles.

  Sin = Opposite/Hypotenuse

  sin(α) = (85 ft)/(100 ft) = 0.85

The angle whose sine is 0.85 is found using the arcsine (inverse sine) function:

  α = arcsin(0.85) ≈ 58.2°

The angle of elevation is about 58°.

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When using your calculator to find the values of inverse trig functions, make sure it is in degrees mode. Otherwise, you're likely to get the answer in radians (≈ 1.01599 radians).