Light house problem

Question

A lighthouse's beacon is 52 meters above sea level. Lucy can see the beacon from her ship, and the angle of elevation is 18 degrees How far is the ship from the shoreline to the nearest meter? Draw a sketch, then calculate the distance.

Answer 1

distance = 52cot18 = 52/tan18 = 52/0.325 = 160 meters

use a calculator with a trig function.

It's a right triangle with distance= d = base=b, 52 = height=h

tan18 is height divided by the base. h/(h/b) = b h/tan18=b=distance to the beacon