How high up the tree do I need to place the rope?

Question

You acquired a 34.5 foot rope and are excited to string it between the ground and up a tree to create a delivery system.You need the rope to make a 25° angle with the ground.

Answer 1

The crucial part of geometry problems is to set up a proper picture. I'll walk you through this. First, let's draw the ground, and a rope making 25° with it. You should have an angle now.

Now, the rope must hang from the top of the tree. Draw a point at the top of your rope. Draw a straight dotted line from that point down, forming a right angle with the ground. You should now have a right triangle. Label that dotted line h. You should now have enough information to solve for h.

Takeaway: Start by drawing whatever information you know how to. Label all of your given information, including unknown variables. Some things you just don't know how to draw a piece of information, so it's about doing as many practice problems as you can to get an idea of how to draw certain scenarios.