Question

A streetlamp has a 20 ft shadow that makes a 40° angle with the ground. which expression represents the height of the street lamp in feet ?

Answer 1

• 20 sin 40° ≈ 12.86 ft

Explanation:

Let the height of the street lamp be x

Opposite angle is 40° and the shadow, the hypotenuse of the formed triangle is 20 ft.

• sin 40° = x/20
• x = 20sin 40°
• x ≈ 12.86 ft