Similar Triangle and

Trigonometry Project
By:Mat O’Neil, Mike Sisk, and Alec
Erskine
5/8/15
Mrs. Hand Per. B
 Overview
● We measured the football scoreboard located on the
outer ring of the track behind the school.
● The mirror our group used was a small handheld mirror
provided by our teacher.
● The clinometer was made using a protractor, a straw,
a string, and a box of binder clips.
● All pictures were taken on Mike’s phone.
 First Measurement-Using the Mirror
● The mirror was placed one yard away from the scoreboard.
● One group member stood back far enough to see the top of the
scoreboard in the mirror. (This was done by Alec)
● The triangle made by Alec and the mirror had a height of 66
inches, a base of 10 inches, and a height of 66 inches
● A proportion was used to find the height of the scoreboard
237.6 is how many inches tall
the scoreboard is so that
10 * 66 divided by 12 is the amount
10X=2376=237.6 237.6/12=19.8 X=19.8 of feet tall it is
36 X
Based upon the measurements taken using the mirror and
similar triangles, the scoreboard is 19.8ft tall
Similar triangles created with mirror
(Diagram not to scale)
Scoreboard

Alec
237.6 in
or 19.8 The triangle created by the
ft. scoreboard and the mirror is
3.6 times larger than the
66 in triangle made by Alec and
the mirror.

10 in
36 in
Second Measurement-Using the
Clinometer
● One group member set up exactly 10 feet away from the base of the
scoreboard.
● Using the clinometer, Mike looked through the straw until he saw the top
of the scoreboard. Once he saw it, the dangling box of binder clips
created an angle.
● This angle read 33°(read by Mat), but this is not the angle of elevation
that will be used for the triangle created with the clinometer.
● You must subtract the angle read on the clinometer from 90 to get the
actual angle of elevation that will be used in the triangle.

90°- 33°= 57°(Angle of Elevation)

Sketch of Triangle Created With
Clinometer
Scoreboard
(not to scale)
63 inches must be added
18.4 ft x 20.65 to the trigonometric
(15.4 ft answer because the base
Mike of the triangle is at Mike’s
57° ft.)
eye level. The 63 inches
from eye level to the
63 in. 120 in. ground gives the actual
x height of the scoreboard.
tan57= 120 184.8 in. + 63 in.
We divided 247.8
(120)tan57= x 247.8 in./12 inches by 12 to get a
value in feet to make
an easier
x=184.8 in. 20.65 feet comparison.
Comparing the two measurements
For the triangle created with the mirror, the height of the
scoreboard was 19.8 feet, really close to the height of the
scoreboard with the clinometer, which was 20.65 feet.
However, the height of the person in each measurement
was off by 3 inches, which isn’t a big difference but could
still make an impact in the results. Both of the methods
should get close results, and they did so if we had the
same person with the same height test both
measurements. Another possible similarity could be the
distance from the scoreboard because it was from the
same distance.
Comparing the two measurements continued

I personally preferred the mirror method because it was

much easier and quicker to find the results. With the
clinometer, we had to make it first of all, and also, it was
tougher to measure the angle of elevation for the
clinometer. Somewhere else where someone could use
these two types of methods would be to measure how
high something is such as a ceiling or a light post or power
lines, and much more. The clinometer method would be
more useful in a situation such as a tree or a levelling rod
because they are easier to find the angles.
If we were to do this project again, then I would use the
sameComparing themeasurements.
person for both two measurements continued
It would have made
the final results closer to each other, and that may have
made them look better as well. Also, I would have
measured something higher than the scoreboard. It was
not too tall and I think it would have been very interesting
to see how close our results would be on a higher object.
A higher object would show how close the results from
each measurement option(clinometer and mirror) would
be and how reliable each one is.