Trigonometry has many real-life examples used broadly. Let’s get a better idea of trigonometry with an example. A boy is standing near a tree. He looks up at the tree and wonders “How tall is the tree?” The height of the tree can be found without actually measuring it. What we have here is a right-angled triangle, i.e., a triangle with one of the angles equal to 90 degrees. Trigonometric formulas can be applied to calculate the height of the tree, if the distance between the tree and boy, and the angle formed when the tree is viewed from the ground is given.
It is determined using the tangent function, such as tan of angle is equal to the ratio of the height of the tree and the distance. Let us say the angle is θ, then
tan θ = Height/Distance between object & tree
Distance = Height/tan θ
Let us assume that distance is 30m and the angle formed is 45 degrees, then
Height = 30/tan 45°
Since, tan 45° = 1
So, Height = 30 m
The height of the tree can be found out by using basic trigonometry formulas.
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