The question is incomplete. The right question is:
A ranger spots a fire while on a 200-foot observation tower. The angle of depression from the tower to the fire is 3°. To the nearest tenth of a foot, how far away is the fire from the base of the tower?
The distance between the fire and the base of the tower is 3816.2 feet.
What is the concept of height and distances?
Heights and Distances is a trigonometric application-based concept, where we try to form a right-angled triangle of the given conditions, take the angles of elevation and depression and try to find the unknowns.
How do we solve the given question?
We are given that a ranger spots a fire while on a 200-foot observation tower. The angle of depression from the tower to the fire is 3°.
We are asked to find the distance between the fire and the base of the tower.
We let the 200-foot observation tower be AB. Let the point of fire be C. Join BC and AC to complete the right-angled triangle ABC, with ∠B = 90°. The ranger from the top of the tower has a 3° angle of depression to the fire. We draw the horizontal line of sight AD. Now the angle of depression can be shown by the ∠DAC = 3°.
We let the distance between the fire and the foot of the tower be x foot.
∠BCA = ∠DAC = 3° (alternate angles).
Also, ∠BAC = 180° - 90° - 3° = 87° (using angle sum property of triangles)
In ΔABC,
tan ∠BAC = BC/AB (tan θ = perpendicular/base)
or, tan 87° = x/200
or, x = 200*tan87° = 200*19.0811 = 3816.22 = 3816.2 (rounding to nearest tenth).
∴ The distance between the fire and the base of the tower is 3816.2 feet.
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