The Mathematics 11

Competency Test Angle of Elevation/Angle of

Depression Examples
One of the classic examples in right triangle trigonometry is the calculation of the so-called angles
of elevation or depression:

• When a person looks at something above his or her location, the angle between the line
of sight and the horizontal is called the angle of elevation. In this case, the line of sight
is “elevated” above the horizontal.

• When a person looks at something below his or her location, the angle between the line
of sight and the horizontal is called the angle of depression. In this case, the line of
sight is “depressed” below the horizontal.

Since the vertical and horizontal directions are perpendicular, the elements of problems dealing
with the relationship between lines of sight and the horizontal lead naturally to right triangles:

horizontal
angle of
depression

angle of
elevation horizontal

Here are some examples illustrating these ideas.

Example: A person stands at the window of a building so that his eyes are 12.6 m above the
level ground in the vicinity of the building. An object is 58.5 m away from the building on a line
directly beneath the person. Compute the angle of depression of the person’s line of sight to the
object on the ground.

Solution: The angle of depression of the line of

sight is the angle, θ, that the line of sight makes horizontal
with the horizontal, as shown in the figure to the θ
right. Since the ground is level, it is parallel to any
horizontal line, and so the angle that the line of
sight makes with the ground is equal to θ as well.
As a result, we have
ground θ
12.6 58.5 m
tanθ =
58.5
so that
 12.6  −1  12.6 
θ = arctan   = tan  58.5  ≅ 12.15
0

 58.5   

Here we’ve shown two commonly used notations, arctan and tan-1, for the inverse tangent
function. Thus, the angle of depression of the line of sight to the object is 12.150 rounded to two
decimal places.

David W. Sabo (2003) Angle of Elevation/Angle of Page 1 of 2

Depression
Example: Calculate the angle of elevation of the line of sight of a person whose eye is 1.7 m
above the ground, and is looking at the top of a tree which is 27.5 m away on level ground and
18.6 m high.

Solution: The angle of elevation

is the angle the line of sight
makes with the horizontal when
the line of sight is upwards or
above the horizontal (in contrast
to the situation where we use the
term “angle of depression” to
refer to a line of sight which is
downwards, or below the eye level
horizontal). So, schematically, θ
the situation here is as shown in 1.7 m
the figure to the right, with the
symbol θ indicating the required 27.5 m
angle of elevation. Note that the person tree
right triangle for which the line of
sight forms the hypotenuse is
16.9 m high after we take into account the 1.7 m distance that the observer’s eye is above the
ground. Thus

16.9
tanθ =
27.5
so that
 16.9 
θ = tan−1   ≅ 31.57
0

 27.5 

Thus, to two decimal places, the angle of elevation of this person’s line of sight is 31.570.

David W. Sabo (2003) Angle of Elevation/Angle of Page 2 of 2

Depression