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Trigonometric Modeling Problems

1. Don Quixote's height above the ground while caught on a windmill sail can be modeled with a sinusoidal function because the sail rotates in a circular motion. He was 15 feet above the ground when closest and 30 feet above the ground when furthest. After 1 minute and 40 seconds, he fell the remaining 15 feet to the ground. 2. A passenger on the High Roller Ferris wheel in Las Vegas would be 275 feet above the ground after 20 minutes, as the wheel completes one full rotation every 30 minutes. The cost per minute of the ride is $0.83, the cost per foot of riding distance is $0.00046, and the cost per foot of

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134 views2 pages

Trigonometric Modeling Problems

1. Don Quixote's height above the ground while caught on a windmill sail can be modeled with a sinusoidal function because the sail rotates in a circular motion. He was 15 feet above the ground when closest and 30 feet above the ground when furthest. After 1 minute and 40 seconds, he fell the remaining 15 feet to the ground. 2. A passenger on the High Roller Ferris wheel in Las Vegas would be 275 feet above the ground after 20 minutes, as the wheel completes one full rotation every 30 minutes. The cost per minute of the ride is $0.83, the cost per foot of riding distance is $0.00046, and the cost per foot of

Uploaded by

Katsu Matasu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Algebra 2

M 2 B Modeling with trig

1. In the classic novel, Don Quixote, the title character famously battles a
windmill. In this problem, you will model what happens when Don
Quixote battles a windmill, and the windmill wins. Suppose the center of
the windmill is 20 feet off the ground, and the sails are15 feet long. Don
Quixote is caught on a tip of one of the sails. The sails are turning at a rate
of one counterclockwise rotation every 60 seconds.
a. Explain why a sinusoidal function could be used to model Don
Quixote’s height above the ground as a function of time.

b. Sketch a graph of Don Quixote’s height above the ground as a function of time. Assume t=0
corresponds to a time when he was closest to the ground. What are the amplitude, period, and midline
of the graph?

c. Write a function to model Don Quixote’s height H above the ground as a function of time t since he
was closest to the ground.

d. After 1 minute and 40 seconds, Don Quixote fell off the sail and straight down to the ground. How far
did he fall?

2. The High Roller, a Ferris wheel in Las Vegas, Nevada, opened in March 2014. The 550 ft. tall wheel has a
diameter of 520feet. A ride on one of its passenger cars lasts 30 minutes, the time it takes the wheel to
complete one full rotation. Riders board the passenger cars at the bottom of the wheel. Assume that once
the wheel is in motion, it maintains a constant speed for the 30 minute ride and is rotating in a
counterclockwise direction.
Algebra 2
M 2 B Modeling with trig

a. Sketch a graph of the height of a passenger car on the High Roller as a function of the time the ride
began.

b. Write a function H that represents the height of a passenger car t minutes after the ride begins.

c. If you were on this ride, how high would you be above the ground after 20 minutes?

d. Suppose the ride costs $ 25. How much does 1 minute of riding time cost? How much does 1 foot of
riding distance cost? How much does 1 foot of height above the ground cost?

3. Once in motion, a pendulum’s distance varies sinusoidally from 12 feet to 2 feet away from a wall every 12
seconds.
a. Sketch the pendulum’s distance D from the wall over a 1 minute interval as a function of time t.
Assume t=0 corresponds to a time when the pendulum was furthest from the wall.

b. Write a sinusoidal function for D, the pendulum’s distance from the wall, as a function of the time
since it was furthest from the wall.

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