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From a hot air balloon, the angle between a radio antenna straight below and the base of the library downtown is 63°, as shown below. If the distance between the radio antenna and the library is 24 miles, how many miles high is the balloon?

 May 22, 2014

Best Answer 

 #1
avatar+33654 
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tan(64°) is given by the distance from radio mast to library, divided by height of balloon (h), or:

tan(64°)=24/h

Rearrange to get h = 24/tan(64°)

h=24tan360(64)h=11.7055821255823653 

h ≈ 11.7 miles

 Edit:  I should have used 63° not 64° in the above!!  

         Thanks for pointing this out Chris.

h=24tan360(63)h=12.2286107878672297

h ≈ 12.2 miles

 May 22, 2014
 #1
avatar+33654 
+5
Best Answer

tan(64°) is given by the distance from radio mast to library, divided by height of balloon (h), or:

tan(64°)=24/h

Rearrange to get h = 24/tan(64°)

h=24tan360(64)h=11.7055821255823653 

h ≈ 11.7 miles

 Edit:  I should have used 63° not 64° in the above!!  

         Thanks for pointing this out Chris.

h=24tan360(63)h=12.2286107878672297

h ≈ 12.2 miles

Alan May 22, 2014

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