From the top of a vehicle cliff 20m high, a boat at sea can be sighted 75m away and on the same horizontal position as the cliff. Calculate, correct to the ...

Answer Details

The situation can be represented by the following diagram: ``` A /| / | 20m / | B---C 75m ``` Where A is the top of the cliff, B is the boat, and C is the point on the cliff directly above the boat. We want to find the angle of depression, which is the angle ACB. We can use trigonometry to find this angle. First, we need to find the length of AC. This is simply the height of the cliff, which is given as 20m. Next, we need to find the length of BC. This is the horizontal distance from the base of the cliff to the boat, which is given as 75m. Now we can use the tangent function to find the angle of depression: tan(ACB) = opposite / adjacent = 20 / 75 Taking the inverse tangent (or arctan) of both sides gives: ACB = arctan(20 / 75) = 15.02 degrees (to two decimal places) Therefore, the angle of depression of the boat from the top of the cliff is approximately 15 degrees (to the nearest degree). So the answer is option D: 15\(^o\).