"A Rotating Beacon"

[ChristaJoy]

I need a little bit of help solving this Pre-Calculus 2 problem. I've been trying to figure it out for quite some time now but I just can't.

Suppose that a fire truck is parked in front of a building. The beacon light on top of the fire truck is located 10 feet from the wall and has a light on each side. If the beacon light rotates 1 revolution every 2 seconds, then a model for determining the distance d, in feet, that the beacon of light is from point A on the wall after t seconds is given by
d(t)=abs(10tan((pi)(t)))

a) graph the equation for 0<or=t<or=2. I'm having trouble graphing this on my calculator; it doesn't show up for some reason.

b) What values of t is the function undefined? Explain what this means in terms of the beam of light on the wall.

An answer would be nice, but I'm more looking for help with the solving process rather than an answer. Thank you so much!

 

[wjm11]

I need a little bit of help solving this Pre-Calculus 2 problem. I've been trying to figure it out for quite some time now but I just can't.

Suppose that a fire truck is parked in front of a building. The beacon light on top of the fire truck is located 10 feet from the wall and has a light on each side. If the beacon light rotates 1 revolution every 2 seconds, then a model for determining the distance d, in feet, that the beacon of light is from point A on the wall after t seconds is given by
d(t)=abs(10tan((pi)(t)))

a) graph the equation for 0<or=t<or=2. I'm having trouble graphing this on my calculator; it doesn't show up for some reason.

b) What values of t is the function undefined? Explain what this means in terms of the beam of light on the wall.

An answer would be nice, but I'm more looking for help with the solving process rather than an answer. Thank you so much!

a) Is your calculator mode set to radians rather than degrees? Also, you might try graphing t from -.5 to .5 . Try adjusting the y scale a few times, too.

b) Draw yourself a picture in plan view (looking down from above). Show the position of the light beam at t = 0, t = .25, and t = .5s. What is happening at t = .5s? Can you plot these points on a graph?