The angle of elevation to the top of a 30 story skyscraper is measured to be 4 degrees from a point that is on the ground 2500 ft from the building. What is the height of the skyscraper to the nearest hundredth foot?

Question

compassionate · Answer

|dw:1443052566875:dw|

compassionate · Answer

Are you familiar with SOHCAHTOA

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

yes

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

i found the ther angle in the triangle so it is 4-86-90

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

and i found the sin(86)= 2493.91
because sin(86)=x/2500
multiply bioth sides by 2500 and then x=2500xsin(86)
x=2493.91
Therefore the hyptotenus is 2493.91 
but I think that is wrong because 2500 is more than that and it is a leg

compassionate · Answer

You need to be in degrees. Change your calculator to radians. The equation is: $$\tan 4 = \frac{ x }{ 2,500 }$$

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

okay and x=174.81

compassionate · Answer

Yuppers.

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

wait that cant be right either

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

no way because then the hypotenus is smaller than the leg

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

ohhhh i see we were using tan so it is the oposite leg and that is the overall answer to the side that we were looking for, okay thanks, i was making it way more complicated than it shoulve been

compassionate · Answer

I agree. This question doesn't make any sense, because it gives a slant of 270 feet per room which is nonsensical, but given the information, that is the correct answer. No one ever said maths made sense.

cutiecomittee123 · Answer

true