Question

A camper wants to know the width of a river. From point A, he walks downstream 120 feet to point B and sights a canoe across the river. It is determined that = 24°. About how wide is the river?

Answer 1

53 feet to the nearest

Answer 2

53 feet (to the nearest foot).

Explanation:

This forms a right angled triangle with the adjacent side to the 24 degrees angle and the opposite side = width of the river.

So we have tan 24 = opposite side / adjacent side.

tan 24 = x / 120 where x = the width of the river.

x = 120 tan 24

x = 53.4 feet.