- #1
kendal12
[SOLVED] Related Rates Problem
Here is the problem word for word:
"Angela Lansbury displayed her athletic prowess by skydiving out of a hovering helicopter 100ft away from a cliff. However, the chutes fail and she plummets to certain disaster. If her position, in feet, is given by
s(t)=-16t^2 + 15840
find the rate of change of the angle of depression in degrees/sec at t=30.9 seconds for a viewer standing at the edge of the cliff, assuming that his head is 600ft above the floor of the valley below.
Ok, I've tried to do several things, but haven't gotten anywhere. I've plugged in t to the equation and gotten 563.04, but I don't know what to do with it. I've attempted to do some trig, but my teacher then told us that even though we can solve it with trig, we need to use calculus or we won't get credit...
This problem confuses me and I don't know where to start. Any help would be appreciated.
Here is the problem word for word:
"Angela Lansbury displayed her athletic prowess by skydiving out of a hovering helicopter 100ft away from a cliff. However, the chutes fail and she plummets to certain disaster. If her position, in feet, is given by
s(t)=-16t^2 + 15840
find the rate of change of the angle of depression in degrees/sec at t=30.9 seconds for a viewer standing at the edge of the cliff, assuming that his head is 600ft above the floor of the valley below.
Ok, I've tried to do several things, but haven't gotten anywhere. I've plugged in t to the equation and gotten 563.04, but I don't know what to do with it. I've attempted to do some trig, but my teacher then told us that even though we can solve it with trig, we need to use calculus or we won't get credit...
This problem confuses me and I don't know where to start. Any help would be appreciated.