Question

A ladder 7.90 m long leans against the side of a building. If the ladder is inclined at an angle of 74.5° to the horizontal, what is the horizontal distance from the bottom of the ladder to the building?____________ m

Answer 1

First, let's sketch the problem:

To find the horizontal distance d, we can use the cosine relation of the angle 74.5°.

The cosine is equal to the length of the adjacent leg to the angle over the length of the hypotenuse.

So we have:

`\begin{gathered} \cos74.5°=(d)/(7.9)\\ \\ 0.2672=(d)/(7.9)\\ \\ d=0.2672\cdot7.9\\ \\ d=2.11\text{ m} \end{gathered}`