How Wide Is the River Jean Camped Beside?

[Meliora]

1. Jean camps beside a wide river and wonders how wide it is. She spots a large rock on the bank directly across from her. She then walks upstream until she judges that the angle between her and the rock, which she can still see clearly, is now at an angle of 30 downstream (as shown in the figure). Jean measures her stride to be about one yard long. The distance back to her camp is 120 strides.

About how far across, in yards, is the river?

About how far across, in meters, is the river?

(there is also a diagram drawn up for this but I am unsure on how to include that in this post)



2. I am honestly unsure of any sort of equation in this case. I am taking intro to physics and my book still hasn't come in the mail yet. My instructor is very hard to understand, but possibly something utilizing the Pythagorean theorem?



3. I am not really sure where to even begin once I have established that one side is 120 yards in length. I feel like a complete idiot here, but this homework is due tonight at 10pm, and this is the last problem I need to complete the assignment.

Any help and pointers in the right directions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[supratim1]

Hi Meliora! Welcome to Physics Forums!try to attempt using trigonometry. go on and try to do something and show us your work. if you are stuck, we are here to help.

 

[Meliora]

Thanks supratim1, I appreciate it.


Upon further investigation I realized how simple the solution to this problem is, hah. I guess I owe it to a brain fart.


Thanks for the reply.

 

[supratim1]

its fine, welcome...