Description

In this module students explore indirect measurement by seeing how simple angle measure, height measurements, and tangent ratios can be used to calculate distances. The context of castles provides a historically relevant military purpose for the tallness of castles.

This module explores Himeji Castle in Japan, as well as other castles. Some of the concepts explored in this module include:

• Angle measurements and alternate interior angles of parallel lines
• Tangent ratios
• Linear functions, in particular the functional relationship between a castle's height and its line of sight for a given angle

This module provides a nice blend of algebra and geometry topics and can be used in an algebra unit on linear functions, a geometry unit on tangent ratios, or even a pre-calculus lesson on tangent ratios and functions.