Sine, Cosine and Tangent Question

Question

When the sun’s rays are at an angle of 39°, the distance from the top of Dakota’s head to the tip of her shadow is 77 inches. About how tall is Dakota? Round your answer to the nearest inch if necessary.

Answer 1

The angle of the sun to the Earth is 39 degrees. The line from Dakota's head to the shadow tip is the hypotenuse of a right triangle. Sin (39) = his height / hypotenuse. Multiplying sin(39) by 77 gives 48.5 inches.