How do you solve this.

Question

From a balloon 744 feet high, the angle of depression to the ranger headquarters is 54°40'. How far is the headquarters from a point on the ground directly below the balloon (to the nearest foot)?

 

Answer 1

Draw the diagram. Review your basic trig functions. You can see that the distance x can be found using

tan 54^o40' = 744/x

x = 527.43