A high fountain of water is located at the center of a circular pool as in the figure below. Not wishing to get his feet wet, a student walks around the pool and measures its circumference to be 25.0 m. Next, the student stands at the edge of the pool and uses a protractor to gauge the angle of elevation at the bottom of the fountain to be 55.0°. How high is the fountain?

 

I did:

2(pi)r=25 r=39.27 m

y=39.27sin(55)=32.17 m

 

However i was wrong. Any advice.

I don't see how you can get a radius bigger than your circumference.

 

[math]2\pi r = 25[/math]

 

[math]r = \frac{25}{2 \pi}[/math]

 

which should be less than 25.

 

Try that and see if you get the right answer.

I don't see how you can get a radius bigger than your circumference.

 

[math]2\pi r = 25[/math]

 

[math]r = \frac{25}{2 \pi}[/math]

 

which should be less than 25.

 

Try that and see if you get the right answer.

 

The error was probably just typing it wrong on the calculator:

 

To get the answer of [math]r = \frac{25}{2 \pi}[/math] you have to type on the calculator is 25, divide by 2, divide by pi.

The result of 39.27 comes from 25, divide by 2, multiply by pi.