## anonymous 4 years ago Isaac is looking through binoculars on a whale watching trip when he notices a sea otter in the distance. If he is 20 feet above sea level in the boat, and the angle of depression is 30 degrees, how far away from the boat is the otter (to the nearest foot)?

1. anonymous

hello are you there? do u think you can draw this first before you can solve?

2. anonymous

@ janessia

3. anonymous

hmm idk

4. anonymous

how would i draw it?

5. anonymous

do you know the angle of depression?

6. anonymous

|dw:1351530728427:dw|

7. anonymous

the height y=20 , the x= distance angle theta = angle of depression

8. anonymous

so how do i solve this?

9. anonymous

|dw:1351530990457:dw|

10. anonymous

you can try tangent

11. anonymous

opposite hypotenuse?

12. anonymous

13. anonymous

?

14. anonymous

sorry my pc got frozen,,, yes try that tangent

15. anonymous

let me know what you getting

16. anonymous

$\tan \theta =\frac{ 20 }{ x } ,......$ then what is x=?

17. anonymous

18. anonymous

ohk but hmmmm??? im so confused

19. anonymous

just forget it its fine

20. anonymous

$\tan \theta =\frac{ 20 }{ x }$ so here we want x, therefore multiply both sides by x, to get $xtan \theta =\frac{ 20 }{ x }.x$ $x \tan \theta =20$ divide both sides by tan o gives $\frac{ x \tan \theta }{ \tan \theta }=\frac{ 20 }{ \tan \theta }$ w/c gives $x=\frac{ 20 }{ \tan \theta }....$ x=?

21. anonymous

did you get it? angle of depression $\theta =30$

22. anonymous

so x= 20/ tan 30 what did you get?