## anonymous one year ago A shooting star forms a right triangle with the Earth and the sun as shown below: A scientist measures the angle x and the distance y between the Earth and the sun. Using complete sentences, explain how the scientist can use only these two measurements to calculate the distance between the sun and the shooting star.

1. anonymous

2. anonymous

@carolinar7

3. anonymous

@mathway

4. carolinar7

@andrearchat

5. carolinar7

@Nnesha

6. anonymous

@teagirl7630

7. anonymous

@andrearchat

8. andrearchat

you have a right triangle the trig ratios from a right triangle are: sin A = opposite/hypotenuse cos A = adjacent/hypotenuse tan A = opposite/adjacent given angle "x" and adjacent side "y", we want to find opposite side BA thus we use the tangent ratio tan(x) = BA/y solving for unknown side BA BA = y*tan(x)

9. carolinar7

I think you could use$\cos x=\frac{ y }{ h }$

10. carolinar7

No tangent is wrong I pretty sure its Cosine

11. carolinar7

@andrearchat

12. anonymous

yeah i think you would use cosine because you have the adjacent side and you are trying to find the hyp

13. carolinar7

Yes

14. andrearchat
15. anonymous

I dont get why its tan

16. andrearchat

17. carolinar7

I did it said cos

18. anonymous

yes it does say cos

19. carolinar7

@ganeshie8

20. andrearchat

Answer :- The scientist would need to use the cosine ratio in trigonometry to evaluate the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

21. carolinar7

Ya I agree

22. anonymous

so i could say Because the scientist is given the adjacent side and they want to find the hyp they would need to use cos. Cos= adj/hyp.

23. carolinar7

Ya thats good

24. andrearchat

yeah

25. anonymous

thank you guys!!!!!

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