You are hiking and are trying to determine how far away the nearest cabin is, which happens to be due north from your current position. your friend walks 220 yards due west from your position and takes a bearing on the cabin of n 21.2°e. how far are you from the cabin?
i've actually solved this, but i want to post the answer anyway :
the angle 21.2° is also the angle of the upper interior angle of the triangle (near the cabin). **see note below.
using the tan function with opposite = 220 yds and adjacent = x ,
tan(21.2°) = (opposite / adjacent)
tan(21.2°) = (220 yds / x)
x * tan(21.2°) = 220 yds
x = [ 220 yds / tan(21.2°) ] ≈ 567 yds