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A man props a ladder of 65 m against a building so he can get to the roof. What is the missing information needed to calculate the angle the ladder makes with the ground?

User JimHawkins
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Final answer:

To find the angle the ladder makes with the ground, the height at which the ladder touches the building is needed. With this height, trigonometric functions can be used to calculate the angle.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the angle that the ladder makes with the ground, the missing information needed is the height at which the top of the ladder rests against the building. With the height and the distance from the base of the ladder to the building, you can use trigonometric functions such as sine, cosine, or tangent to find the angle in question. For instance, if you have the height (opposite side), you can use the tangent function, where the tangent of the angle θ (theta) is equal to the height divided by the base length of the ladder (distance from the building).

If we're given that the ladder's length is 65 m and the base of the ladder is 2 m from the building, and assuming the ladder reaches exactly the top of the building, we can represent the situation with a right-angled triangle. The angle θ can be found using the formula:

tan(θ) = opposite/adjacent

Knowing the length of the ladder (65 m) acts as the hypotenuse in our trigonometric calculations.

User Laurent Debricon
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