Question

From a point 525 feet in horizontal distance from the foot of a vertical cliff, the angle of elevation for the top of the cliff is 36. How high is the cliff (to the nearest whole number)?

Answer 1

The height of the cliff in the triangle generated by connecting the point to 525 ft from the foot of the cliff and its top, is the side opposite to angle 36. Let this height be h. The trigonometric equation that best represent this situation is,
tan 36 = h / 525
The value of h from the equation is 381.43 ft. Thus, the cliff is 381.43 ft high.