Elisama is also trying to determine the height of the window washer.

Question

She is standing only 18 feet from the building and has an eye height of 5.25 feet. She forgot to write down the angle of elevation, but thinks it was 80o. Is she correct? Justify your answer algebraically.

Answer 1

angle of her view of the bottom of the building with the ground has

tangent = 5.25/18 = 21/72= 7/24

angle = tan^-1(7/24) = about 16.26

complementary angle = 90-16.26 = 73.74 degrees. 80 is close