A hands on experience with calculating tan q and arctan q given values for the opposite side x and the adjacent side y.
The students will be divided into two groups. One group will work with a tape measure to determine the vertical drop from the top of the West side 2nd floor railing on the A building to the ground and then from there to the intersection of the walkways to the West.
A second group will work with a protractor and plumb bob to determine the actual angle from the ground to the railing.
| Group Arctangent data table: | Group Tangent data table: | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Take care to measure q from the ground. |
Exercises:
7. Matching exercise: Draw lines between the matching values in the data above:
1
2 5
3 6
4
True or False (use the values from the laboratory if you are uncertain):
8. q = arctan (y ÷ x)
9. tan q = arctan (y ÷ x)
10. tan (y ÷ x) = q
11. arctan( tan q ) = arctan (y ÷ x)
12. tan q = (y ÷ x)
13. A mountain is 10400 meters away and 756 meters high. What will the angle of elevation be between the ground and the top of the mountain?