Rough Science . Scale Map Challenge

Series 1: Mediterranean

Series 3: New Zealand

Series 4: Death Valley

The Challenge: Create a Scale Map

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

If you know how to work out the distance to the object, you can now work out its height. For example, if you measure the vertical angle of the object to be 35° and you have already calculated that it is 1000 meters away, then:

tan(35°) = ^opposite/_adjacent =^(height)/₁₀₀₀
height = (1000 x tan 35°)

Measuring the height of an object using trigonometry

Using this equation, we can work out the height of these objects if we have the angle.

ANGLE = 45^o TAN 45^o = 1
Therefore:
HEIGHT = (1000x1) =1000m

ANGLE = 70^o TAN 70^o = 2.747
Therefore:
HEIGHT = (1000 x 2.747) = 2747m

ANGLE = 10^o TAN 10^o = 0.176
Therefore:
HEIGHT = (1000 x 0.176) = 176m

Measuring the island

Major funding for Rough Science was provided by the National Science Foundation. Corporate funding was provided by Subaru.