Question

Set up and solve. Round answers to the nearest tenth.A young giraffe casts a shadow of 27 feet when the angle of elevation of the sun is 20°. Draw and label a picture that represents the given information then find the height of the giraffe.

Answer 1

Given,

The length of the shadow is 27 feet.

The angle of elevation is 20 degree.

Required:

The height of the giraffe.

The diagram of the giraffe and shadow is,

The height of the giraffe is:

`\begin{gathered} tan\theta=\frac{side\text{ opposite to }\theta}{side\text{ adjacent to }\theta} \\ tan20^(\circ)=(AB)/(BC) \\ BC=tan20^(\circ)* AB \\ BC=27*0.36397 \\ BC=9.8\text{ feet} \end{gathered}`

Hence, the height of giraffe is 9.8 feet.