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We need to attach a support wire to Glendale's flagpole, which is 24 feet high. The

wire must make an angle of 50 degrees with the ground, How long must the wire
be? Round your answer to one decimal place.
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1 Answer

7 votes

Explanation:

this creates a right-angled triangle.

the right angle (90°) being the angle between flag pole and ground.

the angle ground-wire is 50°.

because we know that the sum of all angles in a triangle is always 180°, we know then that the angle flagpole-wire is

180 - 90 - 50 = 40°

so, we have the situation to know 1 side and all angles.

to get the other sides we use best the law of sine :

a/sin(A) = b/sin(B) = c/sin(C)

where the sides and related angles are always opposite of each other.

in our case now we have

24/sin(50) = wire/sin(90) = wire/1 = wire = 31.32977494... ft

so, the rounded answer is that the wire must be

31.3 ft long

User Matthew Seaman
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