Question

the top of a ladder leaning against a building reaches a point on the building which is 29 feet above the ground. if the base of the ladder is 7 feet from the building, what is the measure of the angle that the ladder makes with the level ground to the nearest degree

Answer 1

start by drawing a diagram



which sides of the triangle have measurements... opposite, adjacent, hypotenuse?

Answer 2

opposite & adjacent

Answer 3

great... so which trig ratio uses opposite and adjacent..?

Answer 4

tan

Answer 5

great so you can say

\[\tan(x) = \frac{29}{7}\]

can you find the angle from here..?

Answer 6

would i divide 29 by 7 and get that number and then plug it into x for tan?

Answer 7

the answer i got is 0.07243277332 which i don't think is correct

Answer 8

not quite to find and angle, you need to use the inverse

so if

\[\tan(x) = \frac{29}{7} ~~~then~~~~ x = \tan^{-1}(\frac{29}{7})\]

Answer 9

i am still confused on how i would solve it though

Answer 10

ok... does your cacluator have a shift or 2nd key..?

Answer 11

2nd key

Answer 12

ok... press 2nd and then tan

the screen would show

\[\tan^{-1}(\]

is that correct..?

Answer 13

or ir may show

atan(

Answer 14

did you get either of those on the display..?

Answer 15

sorry my computer died let me try now

Answer 16

it shows atan(

Answer 17

ok.... that's fine, that is how you find the angle measure.... so of you press clear calculator

the to find the angle you need

2nd tan

then inside the open bracket enter 29/7 and close the brackets... then
press = or enter... which ever you may have

Answer 18

i got 79.42956...

Answer 19

umm...can you check you're calculate has a small D for degrees in the display...

its just I got 76.42..

Answer 20

or did you make a typo

Answer 21

no i made a type

Answer 22

ok... so that looks good...

atan, asin and acos are used to find an angle... just put the fraction in the brackets

Answer 23

okay thank you so much