Jessica stands 150 feet from the base of a tall building. She measures the angle from her eye to the top of the building to be 84. If her eye level is 5 feet above the ground, how tall is the building

Question

thurscon · Answer

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This is an angle of elevation problem. So, we use the tangent ratio.

$$\tan 84 = x/150$$

this then becomes 

$$x=150(\tan 84)$$

which simplifies to

$$150*(\tan 84) = 1427$$

Since she only begins to observe the building 5 feet higher than where it starts, we add 5+1427, so your final answer is 1432 feet tall!