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42 votes
A squirrel in a 14 ft tall tree looks down at an angle of 74 degrees at an acorn on the ground? Solve for the distance from the base of the tree to the acorn. Explain how you arrived at

your answer.

User Russbishop
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1 Answer

21 votes
21 votes

Final answer:

To find the distance from the base of the tree to the acorn, we can use trigonometry and the tangent function. The distance is approximately 6.0226 ft.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve for the distance from the base of the tree to the acorn, we can use trigonometry. The squirrel is looking down at an angle of 74 degrees, which means the angle between the ground and the line connecting the squirrel and the acorn is also 74 degrees. We can use the tangent function to find the distance.

Tan(74) = Opposite/Adjacent

Opposite = 14 ft (height of the tree)

Distance = Opposite / Tan(74) = 14 ft / Tan(74) = 6.0226 ft (approximately)

User Mohamed Jakkariya
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