A surveyor has a survey a triangular plot of land. One side of the plot lies along countryside road. This side is 400 ft long. The second side is the gore road, which intersects countryside road at an angle of 88 degrees. The third side of this plot of land is 550 ft long. Determine the distance of the gore road that makes up in the unknown side of plot to the nearest foot

9514 1404 393

  392 ft

Step-by-step explanation:

As in the attached figure, you seem to have sides b and c of the triangle, along with angle C. You want to find side 'a'. The law of sines can be used to find angle B, then angle A can be found from the sum of angles. Knowing angle A, we can find side 'a'.

  sin(B)/b = sin(C)/c

  sin(B) = (b/c)sin(C) = 400/550·sin(88°)

  B = arcsin(8/11·sin(88°)) ≈ 46.621°

Then angle A = ...

  A = 180° - B - C = 180° -46.621° -88° = 45.379°

Now, we can find side 'a' from ...

  a/sin(A) = c/sin(C)

  a = c·sin(A)/sin(C) ≈ 550·sin(45.379°)/sin(88°) ≈ 391.710 . . . feet

The unknown side of the triangle is about 392 feet.

d i think

step-by-step explanation: