## geekfromthefutur one year ago I have some of this answerd but i need help plz ============== Fan + Medal ==============

1. geekfromthefutur

2. geekfromthefutur

@pooja195

3. phi

Are you studying trigonometry?

4. geekfromthefutur

Yea

5. phi

have you learned SOH CAH TOA ?

6. geekfromthefutur

sine, cosine, and tangent of an angle.

7. phi

ok. Look at the triangle in your problem. You (or the scientists) know 2 things and there is one thing you don't know (but want to).. an unknown side each of SOH CAH TOA use 3 things (angle and two sides) so the idea is to pick one of the 3 that use the same 3 things that your problem uses.

8. phi

in other words, you want to know AB, and you do know side y, and angle x put your self at angle x, and label the sides AB and y as opposite and adjancent

9. geekfromthefutur

Yea thats what i was going to say : P

10. geekfromthefutur

Yea the adajat is BC and the opposite is A

11. phi

A is a point, so I would say side AB or give the side a "name" like z

12. geekfromthefutur

Yea ok

13. phi

which of the 3 uses the opposite side and the adjacent side ?

14. geekfromthefutur

id say opposite would be BA? and the adjacent would be BC

15. phi

yes, and because they named BC "y" , you could call BC "y"

16. phi

which of SOH CAH TOA should we use ?

17. geekfromthefutur

We would use cah?

18. phi

we want the one that has opposite (an O) and adjacent (an A) cah has Adjacent and Hypotenuse

19. geekfromthefutur

oh to TOA

20. phi

yes, and TOA is short for tan(angle) = opposite/adjacent the angle is called "x' the opposite is side AB the adjacent is side BC , but they say its length is y, so we will use y $\tan x = \frac{AB}{y}$

21. phi

if you know algebra, then you would "solve for AB" by multiplying both sides by y

22. geekfromthefutur

Ok, and yea ik algerbra

23. geekfromthefutur

*algebra

24. phi

you should get y tan x = AB or AB = y tan x which means, to find the distance from earth to the shooting star multiply t times tangent of x