Current Events > What is a "horizontal angle" in measuring a tall object?

(+) Yeah! (+)

For this homework assignment was tasked with measuring the angle from the ground to the top of a tall object. But the instructions say that this is the "vertical measurement", and then I am asked to find the "horizontal angle".

Wouldn't the measurement I just took be the horizontal angle and the vertical angle would be the one at the top of the tree itself? :\

---

Do you have a third point of reference?

Like a shadow or a person standing x feet from the tree?

---

DrizztLink posted...

Do you have a third point of reference?

Like a shadow or a person standing x feet from the tree?

According to the instructions... no.

It is just me, my protractor and the tree...

Additional instructions include "using the protractor gives you the upper angle, if you subtract that from 90 you get the lower angle"? I am further confused by this explanation since I am imagining the *lower* angle is the one I measured with the protractor...

---

Ok, so it's the two angles you measure.

So say the object is at a 40 degree tilt.

That means that there is a second angle of 50 degrees that makes up the full 90 degree angle.

So if a door opens only to 90 degrees from shut, whenever you open it you create two corresponding angles with an inverse relationship.

Call them x and y.

Door shut, x is zero and y is 90.

Open, x is 90 and y is zero.

If you open it perfectly halfway, both are 45.

I can't really tell you which is which in the question with the info provided.

---

you are presumably going to measure it from some distance x from the base of the tree. You can use that distance, and the angle from the ground to the top of the tree to find the height of the tree without directly measuring it

That's what it sounds like, and it makes sense, but... ugh.

So you measure the "vertical angle" with the protractor, aiming it at the top of the tree. Got it. Then I subtracted that number from 180 to convert it into a "right-side up" angle.

So the "horizontal angle" is from the top of the tree "shining down" so to speak if you have a right-angle triangle pointing straight up, but why is that the *horizontal angle* or "lower angle"?

also realizing I could have just held the protractor the other way around lmao whatever.

---

Youre overthinking it.

It sounds like they mean the angle measured from the vertical line.

Horizontal angle being the angle measured from the ground up to the line.

---

divot1338 posted...

Youre overthinking it.

It sounds like they mean the angle measured from the vertical line.

Horizontal angle being the angle measured from the ground up to the line.

Shit, sounds like I'm also overthinking it.

---

angles are the same

---

I don't think anyone's overthinking it, I think it's just confusing and lends itself to a lot of different interpretations.

Also the "explain your calculations" part of this is worth 40% of the assignment, which is crazy since there are only like three calculations to show.

Maybe I am overthinking that, and it's an easier project because it lines up with midterm week.

---

I guess I am having a hard time conceptualizing why the angle I measured from the ground ends up being the angle at the top of the tree. When I split the diffeence and multiple the distance from the tree by the angle I get the right height

---

Hexenherz posted...

When I split the diffeence and multiple the distance from the tree by the angle I get the right height

Wait, so there is a distance?

---