The Pursuit of Happyness

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH):


• 754,000 people were homeless on an average day in the U.S. in 2005. (This was less than .3 % of the U.S. population.) Only about 55% could find a place in a shelter. The rest, about 335,000 people, were on the streets. One-third of the unsheltered homeless (approximately 112,000 people) were persons in families. Most of these were children.
• 47% of all homeless people are men and 59% are minorities.
• 39% are children younger than 18; 42% of these children are under the age of 5.
• 40% are veterans.
• A person's rent should typically cost about 30% of his or her earnings (leaving money for food, clothing, education, and other necessities); however, "in every state, more than [30% of earnings at] the minimum wage is required to afford a one or two-bedroom apartment." Then where do minimum-wage earners with families live? All too often they are forced into homeless shelters or they live on the streets.


"The"The Pursuit of Happyness" tells us that homelessness isn't a problem for "other" people; it's a problem for "real" people. It's important to remember The Golden Rule: treat others as you would like to be treated. What if you or members of your family were without a place to sleep and there was no one to help you? How would you create a plan for you and your family, as the main character in this film had to do? Be thoughtful in your approach and reference the importance of adhering to a budget.

Christine's Problem

Jim sees a forest fire at the top of a cliff (just make Jim a little dot). The cliff is one mile high and from the point he is standing at, Jim can see the entire tree. From the angle in which Jim can see the bottom of the tree is S25’E. The angle from the top of the tree facing Jim is N48’E. The height of the trees are 2 miles long. About how far is Jim from the very top of the tree?

Bonnie and Clyde just robbed a bank and split up to confuse the cop's. Bonnie took off North 10 degrees west from the bank for 200 yards. Clyde go's East 300 yards. How fare does Bonnie need to go to get to Clyde?

Beatriz's trig problem

Beatriz and Stephanie leave the gym after cheer practice. Beatriz walks home at E20S and arrives at her house 10 minutes later. Stephanie walks home at N45E and arrives to her house 15 minutes later. If Beatriz were to walk from her house to Stephanie's house how long would it take her to get there?

Oscar's trig ratio word problem

Oscar is on a mile high cliff above the ocean. A helicopter is flying towards him at the distance. Oscar is a genius so he figures out the speed of the helicopter, which is 100 miles per hour. The angle of elevation from his feet to the chopper is 5 degrees. The chopper gets closer and the angle gets to 14 degrees. How high is the chopper?

Trig Problem

David is looking at a helicopter with a bearing of 30 degrees North East. The helicopter  is hovering 20 feet away from David. The helicopter has a light beam that travels 60 feet that illuminates David. How high is the helicopter hovering?

Dave and Kevin are having a race to see who gets to the park first. Dave is running at a bearing of  N45E.  From the park to Kevin the bearing is S20W. Kevin is running at a bearing of N30E. Dave is 100 yards away from the park. What is the distance between Dave and Kevin?

A sloth climbed a tree. He climbed up the trunk and out to the very end of the branch. The trunk was slanted at an angle of N25E. The branch is 7ft long and the branch is parallel to the ground. From the sloth to the base of the tree, the bearing is S55W. If the sloth were to miscalculate the length of his branch and fall to the ground, how far would the sloth fall?

Inventing your own Trig problem

We've been learning about right-triangle trigonometry and the Law of Sines and Cosines in class. Add your own invented word problem to the comments below. Be sure that you have worked it out backwards from a diagram first, so that it makes sense.