Sandy is on the ground and Claire is on the ferris wheel. Sandy knows that Claire is 70 ft in the air. But she wants to know how far away she is from the ride, so Sandy uses trig.
Since Claire is on the ferris wheel, her angle of depression is 23 degrees. But she wants to know how far down the ground is at that moment while she is 70 feet in the air. And only because she, and Sandy are math nerds, Claire uses trig.
x ft
23
70 ft
sin 23=70⧵xx≈179.2 ftThe ground is about 179.2 feet away.
Think Claire! USE YOUR BRAIN!! You can do it!
After their excellent problem solving on the ferris wheel, the friends walk over to a different ride