SOHCAHTOA

This is an acronym for everyone's favorite trig functions.

sin(angle)= oppisite/hypotenuse

cos(angle)= adjacent/hypotenuse

tan(angle)= oppisite/adjacent

But you only use this for right triangles (the ones with 90 degree angles)

The angle you use is not the 90 degree angle.

In this "wonderful" section there are going to be a ton of word problems. yay....

An angle of elevation is from the ground to the top of something

An angle of depression is fromthe top of something to the ground

Example 1: Billy Bob Joe looks out of a second story school window and sees the top of the school flagpole at an angle of elevation of 22 degrees. The student is 18 feet above the ground and 50 feet from the flagpole. find the height of the flagpole.

They only gave us one angle (22 degrees) so thats all we can use. They also gave us the adjacent side (50 feet) to that angle. At the end we have to add 18 feet to the height of the flagpole because Billy Bob Joe is 18 feet in the air.

tan (22 degrees) = opp/50

50 tan(22 degrees)= opp

50 * 0.404=opp

20.201=opp

20.201+ 18 = height

the flagpoles height is 38.201 feet.