A skyscraper casts a shadow 200 feet long. If the angle of elevation of the sun is 49 , then the height of the skyscraper is _____.

Question

mathstudent55 · Answer

|dw:1375416425350:dw|

anonymous · Answer

tan(49)=x/200

anonymous · Answer

or in the dude above me's drawing, tan(49)=y/200

anonymous · Answer

Im not really good at tan can you elaborate

mathstudent55 · Answer

In the above picture, 
200 ft is the adjacent leg to the 49-deg angle.
y is the opposite leg to teh 49-deg angle.

Which trig function (sine, cosine, or tangent) relates the adjacent to the opposite legs?

anonymous · Answer

just use a calculator online. tan(49) is some random number BLAH. so BLAH = y/200  -> 200(BLAH)  = y  where y is your answer

anonymous · Answer

and yea tan stands for tangent, cos for cosine, and sin for sine

anonymous · Answer

Tan

mathstudent55 · Answer

Great. 

$\tan 49^o = \dfrac{\text{opp}}{\text{adj}} $

$ \tan 49^o = \dfrac{y}{200 ~ft} $

Is this ok so far?

anonymous · Answer

Yes that good so far....when i found tan 49 does it equal to -3.1729... Or something else cause mi phone calculator isnt advance

mathstudent55 · Answer

First, your calculator is in radians mode. Set it to degree mode.

mathstudent55 · Answer

tan 49 rad = -3.1729
tan 49 deg = 1.1504

mathstudent55 · Answer

$ 1.1504 = \dfrac{y}{200 ~ft} $

Multiply both sides by 200 ft.

$y = 1.1504 \times 200 ~ft $

anonymous · Answer

Oh okay thank you so much

mathstudent55 · Answer

wlcm