Question

A ladder is placed 3.5 feet away from the base of a tree. If the ladder forms a 53° angle with the ground, how many feet up the tree will the ladder reach? Write only the number rounded to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

The ladder will reach 4.6 ft up the tree.

Explanation:

When we draw out our triangle, we should see that we are given the horizontal leg and are trying to find the vertical leg. We use tan∅ to help solve:

tan53° = x/3.5

3.5tan53° = x

x = 4.64466