The Law of Sines

Question

The path of a satellite orbiting the earth causes it to pass directly over two tracking stations A and B, which are 75 km apart. When the satellite is on one side of the two stations, the angles of elevation at A and B are measured to be 86.8° and 83.9°, respectively.

 

The distance of the satellite from station A is ____km

The height of the satellite above the ground is ____km

 

Round each answer to 4 decimal places.

 

 

 

 

 

Answer 1

This problem if tough to work without a sketch (good idea for most trig problems).

 

I posted a sketch in Wyzant file resources at https://www.wyzant.com/resources/files/635740/law_of_sines_quick_answer

 

Let me know if you see it.

 

Again, the key is to sketch it and then apply the formula's you know to solve the problem.

 

Good Luck

 

Cheers

 

-Chris