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Real-world applications

A surveyor has taken the measurements shown in [link] . Find the distance across the lake. Round answers to the nearest tenth.

A triangle. One angle is 70 degrees with opposite side unknown, which is the length of the lake. The other two sides are 800 and 900 feet.
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A satellite calculates the distances and angle shown in [link] (not to scale). Find the distance between the two cities. Round answers to the nearest tenth.

Insert figure(table) alt text: A triangle formed by two cities on the ground and a satellite above them. The angle by the satellite is 2.1 degrees with opposite side unknown, which is the distance between the two cities. The lengths of the other sides are 370 and 350 km.

24.0 km

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An airplane flies 220 miles with a heading of 40°, and then flies 180 miles with a heading of 170°. How far is the plane from its starting point, and at what heading? Round answers to the nearest tenth.

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A 113-foot tower is located on a hill that is inclined 34° to the horizontal, as shown in [link] . A guy-wire is to be attached to the top of the tower and anchored at a point 98 feet uphill from the base of the tower. Find the length of wire needed.

Insert figure(table) alt text: Two triangles, one on top of the other. The bottom triangle is the hill inclined 34 degrees to the horizontal. The second is formed by the base of the tower on the incline of the hill, the top of the tower, and the wire anchor point uphill from the tower on the incline. The sides are the tower, the incline of the hill, and the wire. The tower side is 113 feet and the incline side is 98 feet.

99.9 ft

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Two ships left a port at the same time. One ship traveled at a speed of 18 miles per hour at a heading of 320°. The other ship traveled at a speed of 22 miles per hour at a heading of 194°. Find the distance between the two ships after 10 hours of travel.

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The graph in [link] represents two boats departing at the same time from the same dock. The first boat is traveling at 18 miles per hour at a heading of 327° and the second boat is traveling at 4 miles per hour at a heading of 60°. Find the distance between the two boats after 2 hours.

Insert figure(table) alt text: A graph of two rays, which represent the paths of the two boats. Both rays start at the origin. The first goes into the first quadrant at a 60 degree angle at 4 mph. The second goes into the fourth quadrant at a 327 degree angle from the origin. The second travels at 18 mph.

37.3 miles

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A triangular swimming pool measures 40 feet on one side and 65 feet on another side. These sides form an angle that measures 50°. How long is the third side (to the nearest tenth)?

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A pilot flies in a straight path for 1 hour 30 min. She then makes a course correction, heading 10° to the right of her original course, and flies 2 hours in the new direction. If she maintains a constant speed of 680 miles per hour, how far is she from her starting position?

2371 miles

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Los Angeles is 1,744 miles from Chicago, Chicago is 714 miles from New York, and New York is 2,451 miles from Los Angeles. Draw a triangle connecting these three cities, and find the angles in the triangle.

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Philadelphia is 140 miles from Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C. is 442 miles from Boston, and Boston is 315 miles from Philadelphia. Draw a triangle connecting these three cities and find the angles in the triangle.

Angle BO is 9.1 degrees, angle PH is 150.2 degrees, and angle DC is 20.7 degrees.
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Two planes leave the same airport at the same time. One flies at 20° east of north at 500 miles per hour. The second flies at 30° east of south at 600 miles per hour. How far apart are the planes after 2 hours?

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Two airplanes take off in different directions. One travels 300 mph due west and the other travels 25° north of west at 420 mph. After 90 minutes, how far apart are they, assuming they are flying at the same altitude?

599.8 miles

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A parallelogram has sides of length 15.4 units and 9.8 units. Its area is 72.9 square units. Find the measure of the longer diagonal.

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The four sequential sides of a quadrilateral have lengths 4.5 cm, 7.9 cm, 9.4 cm, and 12.9 cm. The angle between the two smallest sides is 117°. What is the area of this quadrilateral?

65.4 cm 2

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The four sequential sides of a quadrilateral have lengths 5.7 cm, 7.2 cm, 9.4 cm, and 12.8 cm. The angle between the two smallest sides is 106°. What is the area of this quadrilateral?

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Find the area of a triangular piece of land that measures 30 feet on one side and 42 feet on another; the included angle measures 132°. Round to the nearest whole square foot.

468 ft 2

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Find the area of a triangular piece of land that measures 110 feet on one side and 250 feet on another; the included angle measures 85°. Round to the nearest whole square foot.

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Practice Key Terms 2

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Source:  OpenStax, Algebra and trigonometry. OpenStax CNX. Nov 14, 2016 Download for free at https://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11758/1.6
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