Question

Dr. Black is standing 15 feet from the streetlamp. The lamp is making his shadow 8 feet long. He estimates that the angle of elevation from the tip of his shadow to the top of the streetlamp is 50°. To the nearest foot, the streetlamp is about _______

Answer 1

Use tangent because tangent is opposite over adjacent ( to remember sin cos and tan use the phrase "Oscar Has A Hairy Old Asss")
the angle is from his shadow so use (15+8) as the adjacent side
so tan(50)=x/23
so tan(50)(23)=x
so x=about 27 feet