Question

A man walks 5 feet, turns 20 degrees and then walks another 10 feet. How far is the man from where he started? Round your answer to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

Answer:

About 14.8 ft

Step-by-step explanation:

This is a triangle. A man walks one direction, turns, and walks another direction. The question asks for you to find the distance, which is the hypotenuse side. This makes our triangle (see attachment 1)

Since this is not a right triangle, we will use law of cosines.

We are given 2 sides and an angle. However, 20 degrees is the exterior angle. To find the interior angle (green theta), we have to do a calculation:

180-20=160 degrees. This is green theta.

Now, we have all we need to use law of cosines. (see attachment 2)