A roofer must set up a 40-foot ladder against the side of a house. He sets the ladder so that the distance from the base of the ladder to the wall is 1/5 of the length of the ladder. To the nearest degree, what acute angle does the ladder make with the ground?

Question

anonymous · Answer

|dw:1347261334639:dw|
given hypotenuse(ladder)=40 units
distance from base to wall=ladder length/5=40/5=8
nearest acute angle means 0<theta<60
apply limits

anonymous · Answer

apply limits??

Just use the given measurements to calculate theta via cos