Question

the top of a giant slide is 30 ft. off the ground the slide rises at a 30 degree angle. to the nearest whole foot, what is the distance down the slide

Answer 1

I think you need to use the SoHCaHToA method here.

S means sin
C means cos
T means tan
O means opposite
H means hypotenuse
A means adjacent

The hypotenuse is the longest side in a right angled triangle.

The adjacent is the side between the angle and the right angle.

The opposite is the side that is left.

If you have the value of the opposite cross all of the o's out. The same with the other sides. If only one type of letter is crossed out, cross out the type of letter that stands for the length you want to find. The part of the word with two crosses tells you what function to use (sin, cos or tan)

In this example, the function used will be sin.

sinx°=o÷h
cosx°=a÷h
tanx°=o÷a

since we are using sin, the formula we will use is :

sinx°=o÷h

Then you plug in what you know.

sin30°=30÷h
h=30÷sin30°
h=60ft

If there was a case when you needed to work out an angle, inverse sin, or cos, or tan would be used.