Question

What is the distance from the spotlight to be base of the tree, rounded to the nearest meter?

Answer 1

Tan 40 = 12/x   where x is distance from light to base of the tree

x = 12 / tan 40 =  14.3

14 m  to nearest meter

Answer 2

Answer:
14

Explanation:
The given triangle is a right-angled triangle. This means that special trig functions can be applied.
These functions are as follows:
sin θ = opposite / hypotenuse
cos θ = adjacent / hypotenuse
tan θ = opposite / adjacent

Now, we have:
θ = 40°
opposite = 12 m
adjacent is the distance we want to find

Substitute with the givens in the tan formula to get the distance as follows:
tan (40) = 12 / distance
distance = 12 / tan (40)
distance = 14.3 which is approximately 14 m

Hope this helps :)