Friday, 5 March 2010

Find the height of the shooting star from the Earth's ground

This is basically a trigonometry question. I wasn't sure from the question if the apparent location from your friend's position was six degrees higher or lower. I chose higher for the example, but you could change it.
meteor altitude



You have two triangles with the same altitude, but different bases and angles.



$$text{altitude} = x tan(81^{circ}) = (x + 20km) tan (75^{circ})$$ Do you see how to calculate it from there?

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