ANGLE OF DEPRESSION

The word “depression” means “fall” or “drop”. Angle depression is the angle in which
your line of sight changes as you lower your eyes to see something beneath you. The
angle below horizontal that an observer must look to see an object that is lower than the
observer.

(Source: Bowman)

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 with the horizontal, as shown in the figure to the 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.
 12.6
Tan θ =
58.5
So that
12.6
θ=tan −1 ( )
58.5
= 12.15°
( Source: David W. Sabo )
So to apply these two types of angles to this assignment, we must have a complete
instrument such as a clinometers and a tape to measure and have a collection of data.
˚