Answer:
The length of the ladder Mr. Jackson will need to buy for his treehouse is approximately 3.7 meters
Step-by-step explanation:
The parameters given in the question are;
The horizontal distance from the point Mr. Jackson has decided to anchor the ladder to the the stilt supporting the tree house = 1.3 meters
The angle of elevation from Mr. Jackson's eye level to the bottom of the treehouse = 56°
The height of Mr. Jackson's eye level from the ground = 1.5 meters
From the question, we can draw the geometry of the ladder attached to the treehouse using Microsoft Visio as shown in the attached diagram
From the diagram, by trigonometric ratios, we have;
tan(56°) = a/1.3
∴ a = 1.3 × tan(56°) ≈ 1.927
By Pythagoras' theorem, we have;
The length of the ladder = √((a + b)² + 1.3²)
From the drawing, b = 1.5 m
Therefore, we have
The length of the ladder = √((1.927 + 1.5)² + 1.3²) ≈ 3.6653
The length of the ladder without rounding = √((1.3 × tan(56°) + 1.5)² + 1.3²) = 3.66559488352
∴ The length of the ladder given to the nearest tenth of a meter ≈ 3.7 m
The length of the ladder Mr. Jackson will need to buy for his treehouse ≈ 3.7 m.
