Question

Assuming that a 390 foot tall giant redwood grows vertically, if I walk a certain distance from the tree and measure the angle of elevation to the top of the tree to be 39°, how far from the base of the tree am I?

Answer 1

You can use trigonometry to solve this problem. The distance from the base of the tree to where you are standing forms the adjacent side of a right triangle, with the height of the tree being the opposite side and the angle of elevation being 39°.

Using the tangent function: tan(θ) = opposite/adjacent

tan(39°) = 390 / adjacent

Adjacent = 390 / tan(39°)

Adjacent ≈ 496.4 feet

So you are approximately 496.4 feet away from the base of the tree.

Explanation: