Question

A slide 4.1 meters long makes an angle of 35° with the ground. To the nearest tenth of a meter, how far above the ground is the top of the slide?
2.4 m
5.0 m
7.1 m
3.4 m

Answer 1

Hey there! I'm happy to help!

We want to figure out what x is. Let's use a trigonometric ratio of our 35 degree angle to find it.

We see that x is opposite of the 35 degree angle. We also see that our hypotenuse 4.1 m. The hypotenuse is always across from the right angle.

The trigonometric ratio that deals with opposite and hypotenuse is the sine, which is the opposite divided by the hypotenuse. This gives us the following equation.

$sin35=\frac{x}{4.1}$

We want to solve for x, so we simply multiply both sides 4.1

$x=4.1(sin35)$

If we evaluate this on our calculators, we get 2.351663389......

We round this to the nearest tenth, giving us 2.4 m.

Have a wonderful day! :D