Question

A woman standing on a cliff at the edge of the ocean spots a raft. Her eye level is 18 meters above sea level and the angle of depression is 7 degrees. To the nearest thousandths of a meter find the distance from the raft to the base of the cliff.

Answer 1

In a right triangle, the ratio of opposite to adjacent side is the tangent of the angle.
.. tan(7°) = (18 m)/(distance to raft)
.. (distance to raft) = (18 m)/tan(7°) ≈ 146.598 m