Question

The leaning tower of Pisa currently "leans" at a 4 degree angle and has a vertical height of 55.86 meters. How tall was the leaning tower when it was originally built?

Answer 1

Answer:

56 meters.

Step-by-step explanation:

Please find the attachment.

Let the leaning tower's be h meters tall, when it was originally built.

We can see from our attachment that the side with length 55.86 meters is hypotenuse and h is adjacent side for 4 degree angle.

Since we know that cosine relates the adjacent and hypotenuse of a right triangle.

$\text{Cos}=\frac{\text{Adjacent}}{\text{Hypotenuse}}$

Upon substituting our given values we will get,

$\text{Cos (4)}=\frac{55.86}{h}$

$h=\frac{55.86}{\text{Cos (4)}}$

$h=\frac{55.86}{0.99756405026}$

$h=55.996\approx 56$                      

Therefore, the leaning tower was approximately 56 meters, when it was originally built.