Assignment 6: Picture Viewing in GeoGebra

by R. Adam Molnar

Installing a Picture or a TV

The purpose of this write up is to find the maximum angle for viewing something on a wall. The assignment asks about a picture, 4 feet high and 4 feet wide, affixed to the wall so that the lower edge is 2 feet about a person's eye. Horizontally, we want to center ourselves in the middle. We're worried about the vertical direction. At what distance from the picture is viewing angle greatest?

The picture is on the wall, with endpoints in light red. Eye position is the big blue dot on the horizontal axis. Click on the dot and drag it along the axis to change the angle.

This is a Java Applet created using GeoGebra from www.geogebra.org - it looks like you don't have Java installed, please go to www.java.com

Click and drag the horizontal dot to change the angle. The maximum of about 30 degrees is between 3.4 and 3.5 feet from the wall.

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