A ladder 28 feet long leans against the side of a building, and the angle between the ladder and the building is 23°.

Question

A ladder 28 feet long leans against the side of a building, and the angle between the ladder and the building is 23°.

(a) Approximate the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the building. (Round your answer to two decimal places.)

 ft

(b) If the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the building is increased by 2.0 feet, approximately how far does the top of the ladder move down the building? (Round your answer to two decimal places.)

  ft

Answer 1

This is called indirect measurement using triangles to find missing sides. The angle 23 is opposite of side length 28 and 28 is the hypotenuse making this a sine problem. Sine(23)= x/28 and solve for x