Question

How tall is a building that casts a 71​-ft shadow when the angle of elevation of the sun is 29 degrees​?

Answer 1

We can use trigonometry to solve the problem. First draw a picture of the situation to understand what is going on (See the attached photo).

Next, we can use the tangent  function to solve for the height of the building:

$tan(29^{\circ})= \frac{h}{71}$

Next, rearrange the problem to solve for h:

$h = 71tan(29^{\circ})$

h = 39.356 ft