Determine Flagpole Height without Access to the Pole
Date: 12/01/2003 at 17:28:16 From: Ken Subject: Calculate flagpole height without approaching within 10' I teach English and computers at a community college, though I enjoy math problems. A student came to me with a problem that, despite two days puzzling, still has me stumped. The student has to calculate the height of the college's flagpole. Normally, this problem would be simply solved by measuring the flagpole's shadow to get one leg of the right triangle formed by the flagpole and the earth. The height could then be calculated using the trigonometric functions. Here's the kicker, though: The student can't approach the flagpole any closer than 10', and the student can't use any measuring device to determine the 10' limit (thus making impossible an accurate measurement of the flagpole's shadow). I've tried approaching the problem using the trignometric functions, by analyzing the problem as a parallel-lines situation, and by using a mirror to create two similar triangles. In all cases, I could learn much useful information, but in no case did I ferret out enough information to calculate the flagpole's height.
Date: 12/01/2003 at 21:16:41 From: Doctor Douglas Subject: Re: Calculate flagpole height without approaching within 10' Hi Ken. Thanks for writing to the Math Forum. This is a trigonometry problem, and while most students encounter trigonometry in the context of right triangles, we can also apply it to general triangles as well: F. FOA is a right triangle. | . . The point O is inaccessible. | . . We want to compute the height OF. | . . We measure the distance BA and the | . . angles of elevation OBF and OAF. | . . X-O-X--------B-------A The triangle of interest is FAB. We have measured two angles of this triangle: angle A (measured elevation from A), angle B (equal to 180 deg - elevation from B), and angle F (180 deg - A - B). Using the Law of Sines, we can write dist(BA) dist(FA) ------- = ------- this allows us to calculate the sin(F) sin(B) distance FA. And then we apply trigonometry to the right triangle FOA: dist(FO) = dist(FA)*sin(A), where our final answer is expressed in terms of quantities that we have either measured directly or have computed from our measurements. One could carry out the angle measurements either by using a sighting instrument (such as a straw taped to a protractor with a weight suspended from the origin), or by marking the location of the flagpole shadow at the precise time that one measures the length of a shadow of some shorter object such as a yardstick. The shorter object gives us information about the slope of the sun's rays via the arctangent. I hope this helps. Please write back if you need more explanation about what is going on. - Doctor Douglas, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Date: 12/02/2003 at 06:30:48 From: Ken Subject: Thank you (Calculate flagpole height without approaching within 10') I'm an English teacher with some interest (but no expertise) in Math. You, Doctor Douglas, obviously have such expertise; moreover, you also write well (something to gladden an English teacher's heart on a dreary December morning). Thanks kindly for the help. Ken
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