Help with a Trig Problem please, ty
tan28 degrees = h/ (h/tan29 deg) +1500 solve for H - the answer is supposed to be 19,562 but i keep ending up with 944.066 and i cant figure out any other way to solve for H
April 7, 2014
10 Comments • Newest first
@GarrettsHot Sorry, this is probably late but... I multiplied both sides by [(h/tan29)+1500], then just plugged in 0.531709 for tan28, and 0.554309 for tan29.
h = (.531709h/.554309) + (1500 x .531709)
Edit: then solved for h
Edit2: tan28 and tan29 were rounded cuz I'm not typing all of it out
If you're using a calculator, maybe you're in Radians instead of degrees.
[quote=SenpaiPls]Your original equation should've worked; you probably just entered something in wrong. :o
Well, assuming tan28 degrees = h/ (h/tan29 deg) +1500 was supposed to be tan28 = h/[(h/tan29)+1500][/quote]
yes that was it, i couldnt figure out what i was doing wrong i solved it 4 times kept getting the same answer
@SenpaiPls What i might have done wrong was i multiplied everything by tan29 to get rid of that second fraction, i tried to think of a different way but that was all i could think of, can you explain how you might of gone about it?
Your original equation should've worked; you probably just entered something in wrong. :o
Well, assuming tan28 degrees = h/ (h/tan29 deg) +1500 was supposed to be tan28 = h/[(h/tan29)+1500]
[quote=djmaxaaron]Hi garret working hard i see [/quote]
hahaha hey aaron and @SpiritBag hey thank you that worked!
Hi garret working hard i see
@spiritbag ok thanks ill give it a try
@GarrettsHot
Do the system the other way around. Solve both equations for h and use substitution to find the value for a, then plug that back into the original equation to get h.
Well here let me right out the actual problem: A hiker measures the angle of elevation to a mountain peak in the distance at 28 degrees. Moving 1,500 feet closer on a level surface, the angle of elevation is measured to be 29 degrees. How much higher is the mountain peak than the hiker?:
My teacher told us its a system of two equations with 2 unknowns, and that we use substitution to solve it.
I have these two equations: tan29 degrees = h/a where a is the distance from where he moved to the base of the mountain
and tan28 degrees = h/a+1500 : where a + 1500 is the distance before the hiker moved closer
to get my current equation i solved A to be a = h/tan29 degrees: and i substituted that into the equation h/a + 1500
@SpiritBag
You sure you typed the problem correctly? Your h's just cancel each other out and the problem doesn't make any sense how you have it now.