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#1
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Trigonometry Question
Hi all, I had to take a math and science test yesterday as part of a pre interview process.
There were several question that I had to use a scientific guess on. One that sticks in my mind is as follows: You are 300 ft above sea level on a cliff. You see a boat at a angle of 15.9 degrees depression. How far away is the boat? Is this a sin cos or tan function? The other stickler was no calculator allowed all long hand. Help please, Some one please explain this to me, It has been a lot of years since I left the classroom.
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86 300SDL. 250,xxx on #14 Head. One eye always on temp gauge.. Cruising towards 300K |
#2
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arctan(15.9*)=300/x
---I leap before I look sometimes. This is wrong, and confusing. Sorry. ==> tan(15.9*)=300/x Last edited by jt20; 11-12-2010 at 06:46 PM. |
#3
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Which means what? Take the 15.9 divided by the 300 times the Tan of 15.9?
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86 300SDL. 250,xxx on #14 Head. One eye always on temp gauge.. Cruising towards 300K |
#4
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Quote:
We were provided a table of sin cos tan with the tests.
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86 300SDL. 250,xxx on #14 Head. One eye always on temp gauge.. Cruising towards 300K |
#5
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tan(300/x) = 15.9*
If I had to do it by hand and make a guess, I would start by estimating the 15.9 in terms of pi. There are only a few values of tangent that people can be expected to remember... you would need a Taylor Series to solve tangent by hand. I don't think any employer is that cruel. tan=sin/cos and there are a few values of sin and cos that you should kinda know also. |
#6
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oh. gotcha. then just use the tan(300/x) form but usually those tables are in radians, so you need to know how to convert. 180*/pi or pi/180* |
#7
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I just found a table that gave each degree in radian form then each trig ratio.
http://cae2k.com/add-photos-to-comment-0/trig-table.html did your sheet look like that (minus Paris Hilton)? |
#8
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Quote:
I came up with 1055 ft. Again trying to remember stuff long filed into I will never need to know how to do this again!! Is that right? PS it was for a job at a nuc power plant. I need to pass this one and a 5 part battery to even get an interview!
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86 300SDL. 250,xxx on #14 Head. One eye always on temp gauge.. Cruising towards 300K |
#9
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thats purdy darn close 'cordin to my abacus.
x=1053.16 |
#10
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Close no pic of paris though
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86 300SDL. 250,xxx on #14 Head. One eye always on temp gauge.. Cruising towards 300K |
#11
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too bad.
that would be my ideal employer! |
#12
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Not to pick but I think sin is the function we want. Tan gives the distance from you to the boat if you were at the same elevation. Sin will get you the hypotenuse of the triangle which is 1095 and small change.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K |
#13
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just updating from our PM; I didn't take into account the lack of calculator:
Quote:
Last edited by jt20; 11-12-2010 at 04:39 AM. |
#14
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Quote:
ya'know, thats a really good point. I think I botched this whole thing. Its a matter of semantics, but the boat's distance IS the HYP, not the horizontal leg. Posting too fast.... get me every time. My apologies. |
#15
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No apology needed. I sent the PM to explain my pathag answer. I did the rest of the test and came back to these ones.
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86 300SDL. 250,xxx on #14 Head. One eye always on temp gauge.. Cruising towards 300K |
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