Question

Tara standing 20 feet from a tree and the angle of elevation is 72°. About how tall is the tree?

Answer 1

Approx 61.554 feet

Explanation:

Since we are dealing with the opposite and adjacent sides, we will use tangent as our ratio.

Since the angle of elevation is 72 degrees, the left side of our equation is
`tan(72)`.

The right side of the equation is opposite over adjacent.

`x/20`

Set these equal to each other.

`tan(72) = x/20`

Simplify.

`20 tan(72)=x`

`20(3.078) = x`

x is approximately 61.554.