Thread: What is meant by this?

I am having trouble understanding this problem.
It has to deal with either cosine or sine law.

The angle of depression of a fire noticed west of a fire tower is 6.2 degrees. The angle of depression of a pond, also west of the tower, is 13.5 degrees.
If the fire and pond are the same altitude, and the tower is 2.25 km from the pond on a direct line, how far is the fire from the pond?

So do I take the fire and pond are level together on the ground, on a horizontal plane from the angles noted above??

Not sure how to solve this, and do I have enough info??

Originally Posted by bradycat

I am having trouble understanding this problem.
It has to deal with either cosine or sine law.

The angle of depression of a fire noticed west of a fire tower is 6.2 degrees. The angle of depression of a pond, also west of the tower, is 13.5 degrees.
If the fire and pond are the same altitude, and the tower is 2.25 km from the pond on a direct line, how far is the fire from the pond?

So do I take the fire and pond are level together on the ground, on a horizontal plane from the angles noted above??

Not sure how to solve this, and do I have enough info??

1. Draw a rough sketch.

2. You are dealing with 2 right triangles with the height of the tower as the common leg.

3. Calculate the height of the tower (use the tan-function)

4. Calculate the distance fire-tower and then the distance I labeled "x".

5. For confirmation only: I've got

Thanks for the help. I can figure it out from how you drew it. I was totally wrong on my sketch!! ))))