A 550-ft guy wire is attached to the top of a communications tower. If the wire makes an angle of 65° with the ground, how tall is the communications tower? (Round your answer to the nearest foot.)

Answer 1

The wire at 550 ft would be the hypotenuse. If you are looking for the height of the tower, this would be opposite to the angle with the ground. This can be solved using sin.

Let x = height of the tower

sin 65 = x/550 Multiply both sides by 550

550 sin 65 = x

x=498 ft

Answer 2

The communications tower is 498.47 feet. Use right triangle trig and the sine function.