Thursday, January 17, 2008

Applying Trigonometry

If you know the altitude of the clouds, it is possible using simple trigonometry to calculate the speed of the winds carrying them along. When directly overhead, an object at 30,000 feet that traverses an arc of 30 degrees of the sky will travel about three miles. If it travels this distance in three minutes, the speed would be 60 mph , which is typical for winds at 30,000 feet.

1 comment:

willson said...

Trigonometry is used throughout mathematics, and, since mathematics is applied throughout the natural and social sciences, trigonometry has many applications. Calculus, linear algebra, and statistics, in particular, use trigonometry and have many applications in the all the sciences.
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