Question

Suppose a 20-foot ladder is leaning against a building, reaching to the bottom of a second-floor window 15 feet above the ground. What angle, in radians, does the ladder make with the ground Round your answer to two decimal places

Answer 1

Answer:

The answer is β=0,85 rads

Explanation:

As the ladder is leaning against the building, we can imagine there´s a triangle where 20ft is the hypotenuse and 15ft is the maximum vertical distance between the ladder and the ground, it means, the leg opposite to β which is the angle we need

Let β(betha) be the angle between the ladder and the ground

We also know that $sin(betha)=(leg opposite)/(hypotenuse)$

In this case we will need to find β, this way:

$betha=sin^-1((15ft/20ft))$

Then β=48,6°  

We also have that 2πrads is equal to 360°, in this way we find how much β is in radians:

$betha=(48,6°)*(2pirads/360°)$

then we find β=0,85rads