Question

An 84-foot building casts a 98-foot shadow. What is the angle that the sun hits the building? HINT: Draw a picture.

Answer 1

40.6°

Explanation:

The building and the shadow are perpendicular to each other (or intersect at a 90° angle).

Meaning that this is a triangle problem.

We are making a triangle from the building to the shadow and a diagonal line connecting the ends of both.

We need to find the angle at the top of the building. The opposite side of the angle is 84. The adjacent side is 98.

Opposite / Adjacent = Tan X

So if we go to the calculator:

`tan^(-1) ((84)/(98)) = 40.6`

The answer is 40.6 degrees.