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A boat is heading towards a lighthouse, whose beacon-light is 139 feet above the water. The boat's crew measures the angle of elevation to the beacon, 
11^(@). What is the ship's horizontal distance from the lighthouse (and the shore)? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth of a foot if necessary.

A boat is heading towards a lighthouse, whose beacon-light is 139139 feet above the water. The boat's crew measures the angle of elevation to the beacon, 11 11^{\circ} . What is the ship's horizontal distance from the lighthouse (and the shore)? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth of a foot if necessary.

Full solution

Q. A boat is heading towards a lighthouse, whose beacon-light is 139139 feet above the water. The boat's crew measures the angle of elevation to the beacon, 11 11^{\circ} . What is the ship's horizontal distance from the lighthouse (and the shore)? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth of a foot if necessary.
  1. Use tangent function: Use the tangent function because we have the angle of elevation and the opposite side (height of the lighthouse) and we want to find the adjacent side (horizontal distance).\newlinetan(11)=oppositeadjacent\tan(11^\circ) = \frac{\text{opposite}}{\text{adjacent}}
  2. Plug in values: Plug in the known values.\newlinetan(11)=139adjacent\tan(11^\circ) = \frac{139}{\text{adjacent}}
  3. Solve for adjacent side: Solve for the adjacent side. adjacent=139tan(11°)\text{adjacent} = \frac{139}{\tan(11°)}
  4. Calculate adjacent side: Use a calculator to find tan(11°)\tan(11°) and then divide 139139 by this value.\newlineadjacent1390.19438\text{adjacent} \approx \frac{139}{0.19438}
  5. Find horizontal distance: Perform the division to find the horizontal distance. adjacent715.35\text{adjacent} \approx 715.35
  6. Round to nearest hundredth: Round the answer to the nearest hundredth of a foot.\newlineadjacent 715.35\approx 715.35 feet

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