Question

Brian's kite is flying above a field at the end of 65 m of string. If the angle of elevation to the kite measures 70*, and Brian is holding the kite 1.2 m off the ground. How high above the ground is the kite flying.

Answer 1

We can use trigonometry to solve this problem.

Let's assume that the height of the kite above the ground is h.

We have a right triangle formed by the kite, the string, and the ground.

The angle of elevation to the kite measures 70°, which means the angle opposite to the side of length h is 70°.

The length of the string is 65 m, and the distance between the ground and the point where Brian is holding the string is 1.2 m. So the height from the ground to the bottom of the kite is 1.2 m.

Using the tangent function, tan(70°) = h/65

We can rearrange the equation to solve for h:

h = 65 * tan(70°)

Calculating this gives:

h ≈ 65 * 2.747477

h ≈ 178.38

Therefore, the kite is flying approximately 178.38 m above the ground.