Question

An 18 fort ladder leaning against a wall is placed such that the bottom of the ladder is 7 feet from the base of the wall. what is the angle of the ladder makes with the ground to the nearest whole degree?

a. 19 degrees
b. 24 degrees
c. 31 degrees
d. 42 degrees
e. 63 degrees

Answer 1

To find the angle that the ladder makes with the ground, you can use the trigonometric function called tangent. Substitute the values given in the problem to find the angle.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the angle that the ladder makes with the ground, we can use the trigonometric function called tangent. Tangent is defined as the ratio of the opposite side to the adjacent side in a right triangle.

In this case, the opposite side is the height of the ladder (which is the distance from the base of the wall to the top of the ladder) and the adjacent side is the distance from the base of the wall to the bottom of the ladder.

Using the formula tan(theta) = opposite/adjacent, we can substitute the values given in the problem to find the angle:

tan(theta) = height/base = 18/7

theta = arctan(18/7)

Using a scientific calculator, we find that theta is approximately 70 degrees.