Angle of Elevation

&
Angle of Depression

When a person looks at something

above his/her location, the angle
between the line of sight and the
horizontal is called the angle of
elevation. In this case, the line of
sight is "elevated" above the
horizontal.
Object

Eye

When a person looks at something

below his or her location, the angle
between the line of sight and the
horizontal is called the angle of
depression. In this case, the line of
sight is "depressed" below the
horizontal.
Eye

Object

A
stands at the window of a
so that his
are 12.6 m above the
level ground in the vicinity of the
An object is 58.5 m away from the
on a line directly beneath the
Find the angle of depression of the
person's line of sight to the object on
the
ground.

Solution
s

tan 12.6
58.5

tan 1 12.6
58.5

= angle of depression

12.15

Lin
e

12.6m

eye

of
sig
ht

Ground level
58.5m

object

Exercise
Calculate the angle of elevation of the
line of sight of a person whose eye is
1.7 m above the ground, and is
looking
at the top of a tree which is 27.5 m
away
on level ground and 18.6 m high.

Sketch

Solution
16.9
tan
27.5

tan 1 16.9
27.5
31.57

Angle of elevation of this person line of

sight is 31.57

Angle of depression
Find the height of the man in the
hot air balloon from the ground.

= 50
h =100 tan 50
= 119.2m

100m

Exercise
FIND THE HEIGHT OF THE
TOWER
Height of tower
= 53 tan 80
= 300.6m

80

53m

Exercise
From the top of a vertical cliff 40 m
high,
the angle of depression of an object
that is level with the base of the cliff is
34.
How far is the object from the base of
the cliff?

Solution
Let x m be the distance of the object
from the base of the cliff.