Question

An observer on the top of a light house observes the angle of depression of two ships to be 75 and 45 respectively. Find the distance between the two ships if the light house is 100m high.

Answer 1

Solution:
Let the 1st ship is at the distance of y m from the light house & the 2nd ship at the distance of x m from the light house.

Then according to the given conditions, we have
Tan 75 = (x/100)
or 3.732 = x/100
or x = 373.2 m

Also, Tan 45 = (y/100)
or 1 = y/100
or y = 100 m

Hence, the distance between the two ships
= 373.2 - 100
= 273.2 m

Hope you got it!