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3 votes
PLEASE I ONLY HAVE AN HOUR!!!

Dimitri has let out 40m of his kite string, which makes an angle of 72° with the horizontal ground. If the kite flies directly over Sarah's head, what is the distance between Dimitri and Sarah?

PLEASE I ONLY HAVE AN HOUR!!! Dimitri has let out 40m of his kite string, which makes-example-1

1 Answer

2 votes

To find the distance between Dimitri and Sarah, we can use trigonometry and the given information about the angle and length of the kite string.

Let's assume that Sarah is standing at point A directly below the kite, and Dimitri is standing at point B where he is holding the kite string. The distance between Dimitri and Sarah can be represented as the horizontal distance from point B to point A.

In the given scenario, we have the following information:

- The length of the kite string (hypotenuse): 40m

- The angle between the kite string and the horizontal ground: 72°

We can use the trigonometric function cosine to calculate the horizontal distance. The cosine of an angle is defined as the adjacent side length divided by the hypotenuse.

Cos(72°) = adjacent side / 40m

Rearranging the formula to solve for the adjacent side length:

adjacent side = Cos(72°) * 40m

Calculating the adjacent side length:

adjacent side = 0.309 * 40m

adjacent side ≈ 12.36m

Therefore, the distance between Dimitri and Sarah is approximately 12.36 meters.

answered
User Finx
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