Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Draw out a right triangle if you need a refresher. Note that the triangle has three sides and two acute angles. The hypotenuse is the side opposite the right (90 degree) angle.
Walk some distance from the tree, measuring how far away you are. Since the angle between the ground and the tree trunk is a right angle, this ground distance is one of the adjacent legs of the right triangle, and the distance from you to the top of the tree is the hypotenuse.
Using the clinometer, look at the top of the tree and measure the angle of elevation made between that line and the ground.
The cosine of this angle is the ratio of the adjacent side (ground distance) over the hypotenuse. We don't know the hypotenuse, so using algebra we can deduce that the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the adjacent side over the cosine of the angle. Use the calculator to find the cosine of the angle of elevation, and divide the ground distance by that number. This will give you the hypotenuse.
The sin of this angle is the ratio of the opposite side (tree height) over the hypotenuse. Since you don't know the tree height, you can use algebra to figure out that the tree height (opposite side) is equal to the hypotenuse multiplied by the sin of the angle of elevation. Use the calculator to find the sin of the angle of elevation, and multiply that by the hypotenuse. The resulting value is the height of the tree.