Question

A ladder 40 feet in length rests against a vertical wall. The foot of the ladder is 7 feet from the wall. What angle, θ, does the ladder make with the ground? (Round angle measure to the nearest degree.)

Answer 1

Draw a picture. You have a right triangle with hypotenuse 40 and leg adjacent angle theta of length 7. So the cosine of theta is 7/40 and (using inverse cosine on your calculator) you get theta = 79.92 degrees or about 80 degrees.