The base of the ladder in the figure is a = 9 ft from the building, and the angle formed by the ladder and the ground is 75°. How high up the building does the ladder touch?

Answer 1

adjacent side of a right triangle is 9 feet

the angle = 75 degrees

what is the opposite side? the side that's how high the ladder reaches on the building

tan75 = opposite side/adjacent side = h/9

h= 9tan75 = about 9(3.73) = about 33.6 feet

Answer 2

Hi Nicolette,

This is all about right triangles and TRIG ratios.

A handy way to remember them is SohCahToa.

Take a look at the video I did for you and if you have any questions (whether it's about calculator, etc) let me know.

When we sketch drawing out, we see the ladder makes triangle with building wall, and floor. Relative to the angle 75, the sides of triangles are the adjacent (a=9) and opposite (what we are trying to find).

We use tan ( Toa) ...

https://expl.ai/ZCCFYMP