What is the measure of the angle formed by a 13 f t ladder leaned against the top of a 12 f t wall?

Question

round to the nearest tenth of degree

Answer 1

13 is the hypotenuse of the right triangle, 12 is the tall side of the right triangle, A trig ratio can then be set up for the angle at the top (between the wall and the ladder). Since, for this angle, the 12 ft wall side is the adjacent side of the angle (and the 13 ft side is the hypotenuse) the the cosine of the angle = 12/13. To find the angle, you must take the inverse cosine of 12/13, which gives you 22.6 degrees.