What is the angle of depression?

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Multiple Choice

What is the angle of depression?

Angle of depression is drawn from your eye level: it’s the angle between a horizontal line through the observer’s eye and the line of sight downward to an object below that horizontal line. This measures how steeply you’re looking down. Because the line of sight goes downward, the angle lies below the horizontal. The equivalent way to think about it is that it matches the angle of elevation from the object up to your eye level (they’re equal in magnitude). The description that uses an object above the horizontal line would be an angle of elevation, not depression. A vertical reference or a generic angle between two lines doesn’t capture the specific horizontal-then-downward setup of the angle of depression.

Angle of depression is drawn from your eye level: it’s the angle between a horizontal line through the observer’s eye and the line of sight downward to an object below that horizontal line. This measures how steeply you’re looking down. Because the line of sight goes downward, the angle lies below the horizontal. The equivalent way to think about it is that it matches the angle of elevation from the object up to your eye level (they’re equal in magnitude).

The description that uses an object above the horizontal line would be an angle of elevation, not depression. A vertical reference or a generic angle between two lines doesn’t capture the specific horizontal-then-downward setup of the angle of depression.

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