Question

kurt spots a bird sitting at the top of a 40 foot tall telephone pole. If the angle of elevation from the ground where he is standing to the bird is 59 degrees, how far is Kurt standing from the base of the pole?

Answer 1

24.04 ft

Explanation:

Kurt spots a bird sitting at the top of a 40 foot tall telephone pole

Consider the right triangle formed by the line joining the base of telephone pole and Kurt's leg, the pole itself and line joining Kurt leg and top of pole.

This is right angled and since angle of elevation is given as 59

we have

height of pole/distance of Kurt from base = tan 59

i.e.
`(40)/(x) =tan 59\\x =40cot 59`

where d is the required distance of Kurt from the pole.

Hence x = 24.038

=24.04 feet

Answer 2

angle of elevation, aoe = 59 deg

height, h = 40ft

distance from pole, dfp

using

tan 59deg = h/dfp

=》 dfp = h/ tan 59deg = 40/1.67 = 23.95ft