Monday, March 30, 2009

Can we solve it? Yes we can!








Here's the problem: Mrs Kirk is making a banner to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the school.  She wanted to know the height available on the wall for the banner but this would be difficult to measure.   Hannah and Massimo had just studied trigonometry and realised they could calculate the height using their new skills. 

In picture 1 they measured the angle to the top of the wall space using a clinometer.  Then Hannah measured the distance from the wall to where she measured the angle (picture 2) and Massimo found out his height (picture 3).  By drawing a diagram (picture 4) and using the wonder of trigonometry they were able to measure the available height.  

Trig-tastic!

Mr C, Hannah and Massimo




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

17 years ago I left school, and I finally understand the relevance of trig! Could do trig at school but never knew why I had to! *hangs head in shame*.

CS