PROBLEMS INVOLVING RIGHT TRIANGLES:

1. In a certain right triangle, the hypotenuse is 12 cm long, and one of the acute angles measure 42 . Find the
measures of the legs and the other acute angle.
2. How high is a building whose horizontal shadow is 45 meters when the angle of elevation of the sun is 55.6o ?
3. A 40-ft tall tree casts a shadow of 27 ft. What is the angle of elevation of the sun?
4. From the top of a house, the angle of depression to a point on the ground is 32o . How far is the point from the
base of the building if the house is 18 meters high?
5. From a point 50 ft away from the foot of a flagpole, the angle of elevation to the top of the flagpole is 35o . How
high is the flagpole?
6. From the top of a 172-ft high water tank, the angle of depression of a house is 13.3o . How far away is the house
from the water tank?
7. An observation post along a shoreline is 225 feet above sea level. If the angle of depression from this post to a
ship is 6.7o , how far is the ship from the shore?
8. Suppose that a kite string forms a 42.5o angle with the ground when 740 feet of string are out. How high is the
kite flying above the ground?
9. A kite is tied to one end of a string while the other end is tied securely to the ground. When the string is taut
and forms an angle of 55 with the ground, the kite is flying 60 ft above the ground. How long is the string?
10. One of the cables that helps stabilize a telephone pole is 82 feet long and is anchored into the ground 14.5 feet
from the base of the pole. Find the angle that the cable makes with the ground.
11. One of the equal sides of an isosceles triangle is 18.7 cm long, and the vertex angle is 33o . Find the length of
the base of the triangle.
12. From an observation point A at the top of a 250-ft high cliff, the angle of depression to two points P and Q on
opposite sides of a river are 62o and 12o . (Points A, P , and Q are coplanar.) What is the distance between P
and Q.
13. A surveyor finds that from a point A on the ground, the angle of elevation to the top of a mountain is 23o . When
he is at a point 1320 ft. closer to the base of the mountain, the angle of elevation to the top of the mountain is
43o . How high is the mountain?
14. A flagpole stands on the edge of a building. From a point on the ground 100 feet from the foot of the building,
the angle of elevation to the foot of the flagpole is 50o , and to the top of the flagpole is 75o , how high is the
flagpole?
15. A rescue helicopter is rushing to help a shipwrecked sailor in the open sea. From a certain distance, the pilot
spots the sailor at an angle of depression of 32 . After flying 150 m closer horizontally, the sailor is now at an
angle of depression of 56 . How high above the water is the helicopter flying?
How far is the helicopter from the sailor at the second point?