Question

An extension ladder leans against a burning fling, making a 75° angle of elevation with the ground. the base of the ladder is 8 ft from the base of the building. to the nearest tenth of a food how long is the ladder?
a) 10.1 ft
b) 16.3ft
c)29.9 ft
d)30.9 ft

Answer 1

For this case we can model the problem as a rectangle triangle.
 We know:
 Angle between the base of the triangle and the hypotenuse
 Length of the base of the triangle
 We want to know:
 Length of the hypotenuse.
 For this we use the following trigonometric relationship:
 $cos (75) = 8 / h$
 Clearing h we have:
 $h = 8 / cos (75) h = 30.9 feet$
 Answer:
 the ladder is 30.9 feet long:
 d) 30.9 ft