Question

A man is flying a kite on an eighty foot string. The kite has an angle of elevation measuring fifty five
degrees from the ground. What is the horizontal distance the kite has traveled from the man.
Round your answer to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

Answer:

45.9 feet

Step-by-step explanation:

In this situation, the kite string represents the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

We need to solve for the horizontal distance, which will be the long leg of the triangle.

Use the cosine ratio (adjacent over hypotenuse), since we are given the hypotenuse and are solving for the adjacent leg.

Let x represent the horizontal distance:

cos 55 = $\frac{x}{80}$

(80) (cos 55) = x

45.9 = x

So, the horizontal distance is approximately 45.9 feet