A sailor sights a distant tanker ship and finds that it subtends an angle of 1.15° as illustrated in Figure 7.5a. He knows from the shipping charts that the tanker is 150 m in length. Approximately how far away is the tanker?
THINKING IT THROUGH. Note that in Figure 7.3, for small angles, the arc length approximates the \(y\)-length of the triangle (the opposite side from \(\theta\) ), or \(s \approx y\). Hence, if the length and the angle are known, the radial distance can be found, which is approximately equal to the tanker's distance from the sailor.

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Lines of sight (a) 0= 1.15