Question

Please help, i have been doing this for a while and it is still wrong.

Eric is standing on horizontal ground. His height is 1.65 m. His shadow is 1.30 m long. At this moment, what is the acute angle between the sunlight and the ground in the unit of degrees?

At this moment, what is the acute angle between the sunlight and the vertical direction in the unit of degrees?

Answer 1

51.7661748226 degrees; 38.2338251774 degrees

Explanation:

First, draw a diagram to illustrate this situation. Looking at angle A, Eric's height, 1.65 m, corresponds to OPPOSITE, and Eric's shadow, 1.30 m, corresponds to ADJACENT. Using SOH CAH TOA, the equation is:

tan(A) = 1.65/1.30

A = arctan(1.65/1.30)

A = 51.7661748226 deg

Looking at angle B, 1.65 m is ADJACENT and 1.30 m is OPPOSITE. Therefore, the equation is:

tan(B) = 1.30/1.65

B = arctan(1.30/1.65)

B = 38.2338251774 deg