A tower...

Question

A tower is supported by a guy wire 514 feet long. If the wire makes an angle of 68° with respect to the ground and the distance from the point where the wire is attached to and the tower is 125 feet, how tall is the tower?

Answer 1

the tower, the wire, and the ground make a right triangle

the tower and the ground are the legs, and the wire is the hypotenuse

514²=x²+125² where x is the height of the tower

264,196=x²+15,625

x²=264,196-15,625

x²=248,571

x=√248,571

x=498.5689 feet

however, you say the angle the wire makes with the ground is 68º

using the cosine function...

cos(?)=125/514

cos(?)=0.24319

arccos(0.24319)=75.925º, or 75º55'

so someone solving the problem using sine or tangent will get the wrong answer; if you use 75.925º and use the sine or tangent function you will get the correct answer of approximately 498.56 feet

 or.....

maybe the wire distance is incorrect or the ground distance is incorrect ???