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ratman720
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Im in the process of reviewing for my FE and found an online PDF of the older Lindeburg book while I wait for the new one. While running through the trig section review problems, I came to problem 14. Which is summarized as follows:
looking at the top of a flagpole you notice the angle of measurement is 37° 11', You move away 17m and the new angle to the top of the flag pole is 25°43'. How high is the flagpole.
The problem is on pg 70/71 of the .pdf which I have linked below.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/113765067/FE-Review-Manual-Lindeburg-2010 .
I chose to solve this using tangents. Ie x*tan(37°11')=(x+17)*tan(25°43'). its fairly simple rearrange the equation and solve. I come to a height of ~29.56 The answer in the book is found using the law of signs. and comes to 22.43. Of the available options both of our answers are closest to (B) at 22. Noting that the answer from the book is closer, I am curious if this is simply an issue with rounding, or whether there is a distinct reason why tangents can't be used for this.
looking at the top of a flagpole you notice the angle of measurement is 37° 11', You move away 17m and the new angle to the top of the flag pole is 25°43'. How high is the flagpole.
The problem is on pg 70/71 of the .pdf which I have linked below.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/113765067/FE-Review-Manual-Lindeburg-2010 .
I chose to solve this using tangents. Ie x*tan(37°11')=(x+17)*tan(25°43'). its fairly simple rearrange the equation and solve. I come to a height of ~29.56 The answer in the book is found using the law of signs. and comes to 22.43. Of the available options both of our answers are closest to (B) at 22. Noting that the answer from the book is closer, I am curious if this is simply an issue with rounding, or whether there is a distinct reason why tangents can't be used for this.
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