The angle of elevation of the sun measures 70 degrees. A flagpole casts a shadow 15 feet long. Find the height of the pole rounded to the nearest tenth.

Question

Please show step by step for this problem.

Answer 1

15 is the base of a right triangle. opposite side is the height

tangent 70 = height divided by base. tan70=h/b, h=btan70

height = 15tan70 =about.15(2,7474774) = 41.2122 feet high

Answer 2

The shadow length is the adjacent side to the angle. The height of the pole would be the opposite side, x, the unknown. So we can use a tangent equation to solve this.

tan 70 = x/12 Multiply both sides by 12 to isolate x

12 tan 70 = x

x = 33 ft is the height of the flagpole