lisa walks 15 feet from the base of the tree.

Question

lisa walks 15 feet from the base of the tree. She measures an angle of elevation from the ground to the nest of 62. Find how high the nest is above the ground, to the nearest foot.

Answer 1

draw a right triangle

one side is the height the nest is above the ground-call it n

the other side is 15 feet

the hypotenuse is the line of sight at 62 degrees

tan=opposite/adjacent

tan62º=n/15

(15)(tan62º)=n

n=(15)(1.880726465)

n=28.21089698

n=28 feet above the ground

Answer 2

Hi Bam,

 

The angle of elevation is the angle between the horizontal and the line from the object to the observer's eye.

if the angle of elevation is 62 degrees, then tan(62 deg) = height of  nest / 15

Solving this, we get a height of 28 ft for the nest (rounded to the nearest foot).