Question

A Ladder that is 32 ft long leans against a building. The angle of elevation of the ladder is 70 degrees. To the nearest tenth of a foot how high off the ground is the top of the ladder?

A. 20.3 ft

B. 10.9 ft

C. 26.2 ft

D. 39.1 ft

Answer 1

To calculate how high the ladder is off the ground we shall use he formula:
sin θ=opposite/ hypotenuse
from the information given:
from angle of elevation we shall have θ=90-70=20°
hypotenuse=length of the ladder=32 ft
opposite,x= distance off the ground
thus plugging the values in the formula we get:
sin 20=x/32
thus
x=32 sin 20
x=10.94465 ft
x~10.9 ft
the correct answer should be 30.1 ft