A 84-ft tree casts a shadow that is 120 ft long. What is the angle of elevation of the sun? (Round your answer to one decimal place.)

Answer 1

I hope this helped!

Answer 2

Setting up a diagram would be helpful here, so we should have the vertical leg representing the 84-ft. tree and the horizontal leg representing the 120 ft. shadow. With the two measurements we are given, we should use the tangent ratio, opp/adj, to set up an equation to solve for the angle of elevation. So the equation will be:

tan θ = 84/120. Using the tan inverse function on the calculator, we have tan^-1( 84/120) = θ and, rounding our decimal value to the nearest 10th, we have θ =35°.