Problem

To measure a stone face carved on the side of a mountain, two sightings 900 feet from the base of the mountain are taken. If the angle of elevation to the bottom of the face is 25 and the angle of elevation to the top is 28, what is the height of the stone face?
The height of the stone face is feet.
(Do not round until the final answer. Then round to two decimal places as needed.)

Answer

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Answer

Final Answer: The height of the stone face is 58.86 feet.

Steps

Step 1 :Let's denote the height from the ground to the bottom of the face as h1 and the height from the ground to the top of the face as h2.

Step 2 :We can set up two equations, one for the bottom of the face and one for the top, using the tangent of the angles of elevation. The tangent of an angle in a right triangle is equal to the opposite side (the height we're trying to find) divided by the adjacent side (the distance from the base of the mountain, which is 900 feet).

Step 3 :So we have: tan(25)=h1900 and tan(28)=h2900

Step 4 :Solving these equations for h1 and h2, we get h1=900×tan(25) and h2=900×tan(28)

Step 5 :Subtracting h1 from h2 gives us the height of the face: h2h1

Step 6 :Substituting the values we found for h1 and h2, we get 900×tan(28)900×tan(25)

Step 7 :Calculating this gives us the height of the stone face.

Step 8 :Final Answer: The height of the stone face is 58.86 feet.

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