SOLUTION: Hello, I have a ladder that is 55' in length leaning against a wall, which I believe is the hypotenuse. The angle where the ladder meets the street is 55 degrees. I need to find

Question 413812: Hello,
I have a ladder that is 55' in length leaning against a wall, which I believe is the hypotenuse. The angle where the ladder meets the street is 55 degrees. I need to find the length of the other two sides of the triangle. I wasn't good at math 30 years ago and it hasn't gotten any better. Thanks in advance for your help.
Best regards,
ML
Answer by bayners123(12) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Hi ML!
Your question is about trigonometry; you may remember the expression "SOH CAH TOA" from school. SOH stands for "sin = opposite divided by hypotenuse," CAH for "cos = adjacent by hypotenuse" and TOA for "tan = opposite by adjacent."
You are right in saying that the ladder is the hypotenuse in this triangle. Lets start with the length by the street:
This is "adjacent" to the angle we know, so we need the equation with the adjacent in it, as well as the other length we know: the hypotenuse. This is the CAH equation, so use . This gives so your length is 31.5 feet.
The process is exactly the same for the other length (the "opposite") so see if you can do that yourself. You'll need the SAH equation and you should get 45.0 feet.
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