A shooting star forms a right triangle with the Earth and the Sun, as shown below: A right triangle is shown with the vertices labeled Earth, Sun, and Shooting Star. The angle formed by the Sun is labeled x deg

A scientist measures the angle x and the distance y between the Earth and the Sun. Using complete sentences, explain how the scientist can use only these two measurements to calculate the distance between the Sun and the shooting star. (10 points)

NO LINKS OR ABSURD ANSWERS

I found this

The scientist can use these two measurements to calculate the distance between the Sun and the shooting star by applying one of the trigonometric functions: Cosine of an angle.

- The scientist can substitute these measurements into cos\alpha=\frac{adjacent}{hypotenuse}cosα=

hypotenuse

adjacent

and solve for the distance between the Sun and the shooting star (which would be the hypotenuse of the righ triangle).

Step-by-step explanation:

You can observe in the figure attached that "AC" is the distance between the Sun and the shooting star.

Knowing the distance between the Earth and the Sun "y" and the angle x°, the scientist can use only these two measurements to calculate the distance between the Sun and the shooting star by applying one of the trigonometric functions: Cosine of an angle.

This is:

cos\alpha=\frac{adjacent}{hypotenuse}cosα=

hypotenuse

adjacent

In this case:

\begin{gathered}\alpha=x\°adjacent=BC=yhypotenuse=AC\end{gathered}

α=x\°

adjacent=BC=y

hypotenuse=AC

Therefore, the scientist can substitute these measurements into cos\alpha=\frac{adjacent}{hypotenuse}cosα=

hypotenuse

adjacent

, and solve for the distance between the Sun and the shooting star "AC":

cos(x\°)=\frac{y}{AC}cos(x\°)=

AC

y

AC=\frac{y}{cos(x\°)}AC=

cos(x\°)

y

x=6 and x=3

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