TRIGONOMETRY IN MARINE ENGINEERING

• How to calculate the bearing of • calculate the bearing of the harbour

the harbour from the lighthouse from the lighthouse to the nearest
to the nearest degree? degree.
• What is the distance from • calculate the distance from harbour
harbour to the lighthouse ? to the lighthouse using
trigonometry.
• What is the angle of the
lighthouse?
A boat sails due East from a Harbour (H), to a marker buoy (B), 15 miles away. At B the boat
turns due South and sails for 6.4 miles to a Lighthouse (L). It then returns to harbour. Make a
sketch of the trip and calculate the bearing of the harbour from the lighthouse to the nearest
degree.

15 miles
H
15 B
Tan L 
6.4

6.4 miles

We realised that trigonometry can be used in many

areas such as astronomy and architecture they can aid
in calculating many things they can also be used in
cars desks and benches. Without really climbing a tree,
you can find the height easily with trigonometry. They
can be so widely used in real life applications and is
very useful for most architects and astronomers.
We can conclude that without trigonometry, life would
be much more difficult. Without going through the
troubles, you can easily find something so we think
that it was a good invention by Archimedes and
thanks to this many architects need not go through the
trouble to calculate things, so it really helps in real life
in marine biology applications and not only in our tests and exams.