finding the angle in degrees given the adj and opp

Question

A rocket is fired from the ground at some angle and travels in a straight path. When the rocket has traveled 445 yards it is 350 yards above the ground. At what angle (in degrees) was the rocket fired at?

Answer 1

Draw the triangle suggested by this problem and you will see that 445 yards is the hypotenuse and 350 yards is the opposite side. The right angle is formed between the ground and the height of the rocket. So, you have opp and hyp, and you should use the inverse sine function to find the angle: sin^-1(350/445). If you have your calc in degree mode you will get 51.86 degrees. If you have it in radians, you will get 0.90514847. If you have radians, you can find degrees by multiplying by the radians by 180 and then dividing by π.