SOLUTION: The largest tree in California is the General Sherman tree in the Sequoia National Park. At a point 185 feet from the tree, at the same elevation as its foot, the angle of elevatio

Question 468829: The largest tree in California is the General Sherman tree in the Sequoia National Park. At a point 185 feet from the tree, at the same elevation as its foot, the angle of elevation of the top of the tree is 55degrees 49minutes. How tall is the tree?
Answer by Theo(13342) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
your angle of elevation is 55 degrees and 49 minutes.
to convert this to degrees, you need to divide the minutes by 60 and then add it to the degrees.
55 degrees and 49 minutes is equivalent to 55 degrees + (49/60) degrees which is equal to 55 degrees + .8166666667 degrees which is equal to 55.816666667 degrees.
the tangent of your angle can be used to find the height of the tree.
tangent of your angle is equal to opposite side divided by adjacent side.
opposite side is the height you want to find. call it x.
adjacent side is the distance you are from the tree. call it 185.
your formula is:
tangent (55.816666667) = x / 185
multiply both sides of this equation by 185 to get:
185 * tangent (55.816666667) = x
this is equivalent to:
x = 185 * tangent (55.816666667)
use your calculator to get:
x = 272.3896384 feet.
that's the height of the tree.
rounded to the nearest foot, that would be 272 feet.

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