Precalculus (6th Edition) Blitzer

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0-13446-914-3
ISBN 13: 978-0-13446-914-0

Chapter 6 - Section 6.2 - The Law of Cosines - Exercise Set - Page 730: 38

Answer

$100^\circ$, not an efficient walker.

Work Step by Step

Step 1. Using the given figure, we can identify the three sides as $5.2,3.6,3.2\ ft$ Step 2. The pace angle $\theta$ faces the longest side and using the Law of Cosines, we have $5.2^2=3.6^2+3.2^2-2(3.6)(3.2)cos\theta$ and $cos\theta\approx-0.1667$ Thus $\theta=acos(-0.1667)\approx100^\circ$ Step 3. The pace angle is not very large, indicating that this herbivore was not an efficient walker because it traveled too much sideways during each step.
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