Question

A painter is placing a ladder to reach the third story window, which is 14 feet above the ground and makes an angle with the ground at 70°

How far out from the base of the building does the ladder need to be positioned? Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

4.8

Explanation:

We are given the hypotunese or the slanted side which is the ladder length which is 14.

We are given an angle at the bottom which is 70 degrees.

We are asked to find the horizontal side which is adjacent to the angle at the bottom.

Since we have a hypotunese and a side adjacent to the angle, we are going to use the function cosine.

we use this formula

`\cos(theta) = (adj)/(hypo)`

`\cos(70) = (x)/(14)`

x=4.8