A 5'6" person walking down the street notices his shadow. If the angle of elevation from the tip of the shadow to the sun is 60°, what is the length of the shadow(round to 2 decimal places)?
A)
3.18 feet
B)
3.23 feet
C)
8.66 feet
D)
11.00 feet

Question

A 5'6" person walking down the street notices his shadow. If the angle of elevation from the tip of the shadow to the sun is 60°, what is the length of the shadow(round to 2 decimal places)?
A)
3.18 feet	
B)
3.23 feet	
C)
8.66 feet	
D)
11.00 feet

mertsj · Answer

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mertsj · Answer

I see that you are studying the special right triangles.  You should know that the side opposite the 30 degree angle can be multiplied by sqrt3 to get the long leg.  Therefore take the long leg and divide by sqrt3 to get the short leg.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

5' 6" = 5 feet + 6 inches = 12*5 + 6 = 60 + 6 = 66 inches


tan(60) = 66/x


x*tan(60) = 66


x = 66/tan(60)


x = 66/sqrt(3)


x = 66*sqrt(3)/3


x = 38.105


So the length of the shadow is roughly 38.105 inches


Convert to feet to get


38.105/12 = 3.175 feet which rounds to 3.18 feet

anonymous · Answer

thank you

mertsj · Answer

What did you get?

anonymous · Answer

im still trying to work it out

mertsj · Answer

Just take 5.5 divided by square root of 3

anonymous · Answer

B) 3.23 feet

anonymous · Answer

i still dont really get it though

anonymous · Answer

and this is a retake for extra credit