SOLUTION: a 15 foot ladder is placed against a wall at an angle of 65 degres with the ground. how far away is the bottom of the ladder from the wall to the nearest tenth?

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Question 122264: a 15 foot ladder is placed against a wall at an angle of 65 degres with the ground. how far away is the bottom of the ladder from the wall to the nearest tenth?
Answer by algebrapro18(249) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Here you going to want to use cosine.

the base of the triangle created by the latter and the wall is x and the hypontenuse is 15 feet so that sets up this trig ratio:

cos 65 = x/15

now we just need to solve for x

cos 65 = x/15 --> multiply both sides by 15
15 cos(65) = x --> approximate the value of x
6.3 = x