Question

A person walking down the street notices his shadow. If the angle of elevation from the tip of the shadow to the sun is 60° and the length of the shadow is 5 feet, what is the distance from the top of his head to the tip of his shadow (round to 2 decimal places)?

Answer 1

In order to do this, you will have to draw a triangle, then use sin, cos, and tan to solve for the distance.

Answer 2

Answer: 10.00 feet

Explanation: The correct answer is 10.00 feet. Since you know this a right triangle you can use the trig ratios. You know the angle and the adjacent side and you are trying to find the hypotenuse so you use cosine. cos 60° = 5/x .