Trigonometry height and distance

As observed from the top of a light house 100m above the water level, the angles of depression of two ships are 30 and 45 degrees.If one ship is to the east of the light house,find the distance between the two ships

 Unknown008 Posts: 8,147, Reputation: 3745 Uber Member #2 Aug 6, 2009, 05:13 AM

Have you made a sketch? Also, I'm assuming here that both ships are to the east of the lighthouse, for there would be too many solutions otherwise.

If you have, then the solutions will come by themselves. The only things you need here is :

$tan\theta = \frac{OPP}{ADJ}$

OPP is the opposite side to the angle and ADJ is the adjacent side. It's easier of you work with the angle between whole lighthouse and the line of sight of your observer (that is remove the concerned angle from 90 degrees).

Then, when you find the distances of both ships from the lighthouse, you find their distance apart by subtracting the closer from the further distance.

 rprakashsamy Posts: 1, Reputation: 10 Junior Member #3 Nov 28, 2010, 08:49 PM
73.2 m

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