The picture shows a portion of a river dam.

What is the length, in meters, of the distance between the tip of the dam to the base?

Question

The picture shows a portion of a river dam. 
  
What is the length, in meters, of the distance between the tip of the dam to the base?

anonymous · Answer

someone please help x.x

anonymous · Answer

First figure out what you're given

anonymous · Answer

what side is given in this case?

anonymous · Answer

the adjacent? o.o i think thats what its called

anonymous · Answer

yes that is correct , and what side is the ?

anonymous · Answer

the hypotenuse?

anonymous · Answer

also correct, so what trigonometric function relates the Adjacent and Hypotenuse (Hint: SOH CAH TOA) *CAH*

anonymous · Answer

um... the cosine one?

anonymous · Answer

yes so using this setup

$$cos(\theta)=Adjacent/Hypotenuse$$

whre theta is given as 50, just fill in all the information you have said above... what do you get?

anonymous · Answer

um x.x i dont know what to fill in for the cos part and the hypotenuse part im sorry

anonymous · Answer

alright so you were given that

$$\theta=50$$
$$Adjacent= 115$$
$$Hypotenuse=x$$ all i did was switch the ? with an x

anonymous · Answer

so if you fill that in you get

$$cos(50)=\frac{115}{x}$$

if you multiply by x,

$$xcos(50)=115$$
lastly divide by cos(50)

$$x=\frac{115}{cos(50)}$$

anonymous · Answer

plug this in to get an approximate answer

anonymous · Answer

omg thanks i wouldnt had figured that out x.x