Question

While you’re at the top of the tower(50 meters), you see an ant walking along the edge of the building. If the ant were to walk straight down the side of the tower until it reached the ground, how far would the ant travel? Which trigonometric ratio would you use to find this distance? Use the ratio to find the measurement.

Answer 1

50.4 meters

Explanation:

Given

`h = 50` -- height of the tower

`\theta = 7.1^o` --- angle with the wall (missing from the question)

Required

The distance walked by the ant (d)

I've added an attachment to illustrate the given parameters.

Where

`h \to` height of the tower

`d \to` distance walked

To calculate d, we make use of cosine trigonometric ratio:

`\cos(\theta) = (Adjacent)/(Hypotenuse)`

So, we have:

`\cos(7.1^o) = (50)/(d)`

Make d the subject

`d = (50)/(\cos(7.1^o))`

`d = (50)/(0.9923)`

`d = 50.4`