This week I learned how to use trig to solve problems that include bearings.

Bearings:

• Each direction has a 3 bearing number that tells you the angle of direction they’re at
• North=000, east=090, south=180, west= 270, and everything in between

For example, someone walks 7 km on a bearing of 160, how far east did they walk

• First, it’s always a good idea to draw out what the question is asking
• Next you have to find the reference angle of the triangle made from the bearings: if it was 160, that’s 160 from 000 but you just want if from the 7 km line to the nearest direction (south), so you have to subtract 160 from 180
• Label all the sides
• You have to find the opposite side, and it gives you the hypotenuse which means you need to use sine
• Plug it into the general formula: sin20=x divided by 7
• Use your calculator and now you know how far east they walked.