Mathtrail_Q6-Building

H E L E N K E L L E R M I D D L E S C H O O L
360 Sport Hill Road, Easton, CT 06612
Telephone: 203-268-8651
Fax: 203-268-6105

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar...Helen A. Keller

Computing the Height of a Building

Helen Keller Middle School's New Haven Math Trail

Connecticut Hall is the oldest building on the Yale campus. One way in which you could measure the height of the building is by using trigonometric ratios (remember SOHCAHTOA?)

Suppose that an engineer is able to set up a transit at the base of the Statue of Theodore Dwight Woolsey, located in the middle of the Old Campus lawn. She is able to direct the transit at the peak of the Connecticut Hall roof and measures an angle of elevation of 16.7°. Use this information and what you know about the trig ratios to find the height of the roof at its highest point.

Hints:

When you measure the distance from the building to the statue (either by measuring with your tape measure or by pacing), be sure to measure from the middle of the building, directly below the roof's peak.
Go to the MODE button on your graphing calculator and make sure that the calculator is set to DEGREES.

While you are on Old Campus, locate the statue of Theodore Dwight Woolsey, President and Pastor of Yale in the late nineteenth century. The statue has taken on a greenish patina (remember the color of the Statue of Liberty?). However, the shoe remains a rich copper color. The reason? A Yale legend says that rubbing President Woolsey's shoe is good luck. Rub the shoe on your way by the statue...perhaps it will give you good luck on the rest of the Math Trail!

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