Right Triangle

Applications
Problems
Solved
1. A 16 foot ladder is leaning against a house. It touches the bottom of a window that is 12 feet 6
inches above the ground. What is the measure
of the angle that the ladder forms with the
ground?
Let x equal the measure of the angle the
ladder forms with the ground. A picture of the
problem is drawn to the right.
We have the side opposite to the angle in
question as well as the hypotenuse. I can
write the unknown in terms of the known using the definition of sine:

. First I need to get every thing in terms of inches: 12 ft = 144 in. ,so 12 ft 6 in =
150 in. and
= 192 in so
. Notice the units cancel out. You should
always get a unitless number when you have a trigonometric ratio. Using the inverse sin on a
calculator I get the measure of the angle is equal to
.

2.

a. I would use the converse of the Pythagorean Theorem

to solve this problem.
b. The converse of the Pythagorean Theorem tells me
that if
then the pole would be at a
right angle with the ground when the string was 17 ft.

So compute
and
since
the pole would
be at a right angle with the ground when the string is 17 ft.
3. Kaila is flying a kite whose string is making a
angle with the ground. The kite string is 65
meters long. How far is the kite above the ground?
After reading the problem I would draw the following picture:
where h is the height, what I want to find. I know an angle, so I know I need to use
a trigonometric ratio to solve this problem. I am looking for the side opposite the
given angle and I know the hypotenuse. Looking at my definitions I see I should
use the sine ratio to write the unknown in terms of knowns.

So I have

or

So using my calculator to compute sin

ground.

I find the kite is approximately 61 meters above the

4. The Brook's are installing a wide-screen television with a 60-inch diagonal. Their
entertainment center is 48 inches wide by 36 inches high, will the television fit in their current
entertainment center?
After reading the problem I draw the following:
I want to find d to see if the television with a 60- inch
diagonal will fit into a rectangle that is 48-inches by 36
inches. I can use the Pythagorean Theorem to put my
knowns in terms of my unknown:

or

so the television will fit exactly.

5. A surveyor is 100 meters from the base of a dam. The angle of elevation to the top of the dam
measures
. The surveyor's eye-level is 1.73 meters above the ground. Find the height of the
dam to the nearest hundredth of a meter.
After reading the problem I draw:
So the top of the dam will be
distance d + 1.73 m. I have and
angle, and the side adjacent to the
angle and I am looking for the side
opposite the angle. Since
I will use this
trigonometric ratio to solve for d.

I get:
I am not quite done, I must add the distance the triangle is above the ground to get the height I
am looking for. The height of the dam is 48.77 m + 1.73 m = 50.50 m.
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