Find a building’s height from a measured distance and angle of elevation.
Solve the classic "how tall is that building" trigonometry problem — given a horizontal distance and an angle of elevation, find the height, or work backward from any two of the three to find the missing one.
This is a right-triangle problem: the angle of elevation is measured from the horizontal up to the object, the horizontal distance is one leg of the triangle, and the height is the other leg — related by the tangent function (height = distance × tan(angle)). Angle of depression works identically, just measured downward from horizontal instead of upward (like looking down at a boat from a cliff), and uses the exact same math.
This assumes you're measuring from eye level or ground level in a flat, simple setup — real surveying accounts for the observer's own height and more complex terrain, but the core trigonometry is exactly the same relationship.
Elevation is the angle measured upward from horizontal (looking up at something), depression is measured downward (looking down at something) — they use identical trigonometry, just describing which direction you’re looking.
Not automatically — it calculates the height above your eye level or instrument level, not above the ground. Add your own height to the result if you need the total height above ground.
Tangent relates the two legs of a right triangle directly (opposite over adjacent) without needing the hypotenuse at all — exactly the two measurements (height and horizontal distance) this kind of problem usually starts with.