Help please, trig is killing me.
Dr. Black is standing 20 feet from a streetlamp. The lamp is making his shadow 5 feet long. He estimates that the angle of elevation from the tip of his shadow to the top of the streetlamp is 30. To the nearest foot, the streetlamp is about _____.

Question

Help please, trig is killing me.
Dr. Black is standing 20 feet from a streetlamp. The lamp is making his shadow 5 feet long.  He estimates that the angle of elevation from the tip of his shadow to the top of the streetlamp is 30. To the nearest foot, the streetlamp is about _____.

mathmale · Answer

Brannon:  Good morning!  Have you tried sketching this situation and labeling the unknowns?  Even without a diagram I "see" similar triangles in this problem.  Once you have a sketch, think of how you might use similar triangles to solve for the height of the street lamp.  (There are other methods you could use.)