SOLUTION: A telescope is mounted on a tripod 5 ft above the ground and 20 ft from a flagpole. The telescope must be rotated 54˚ from horizontal to see the top of the flagpole. How tal

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Geometry -> SOLUTION: A telescope is mounted on a tripod 5 ft above the ground and 20 ft from a flagpole. The telescope must be rotated 54˚ from horizontal to see the top of the flagpole. How tal      Log On

Ad: Over 600 Algebra Word Problems at edhelper.com


    

Question 496356: A telescope is mounted on a tripod 5 ft above the ground and 20 ft from a flagpole. The telescope must be rotated 54˚ from horizontal to see the top of the flagpole. How tall is the flagpole?
HELP please
Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
telescope is mounted on a tripod 5 ft above the ground and 20 ft from a flagpole.
The telescope must be rotated 54˚ from horizontal to see the top of the flagpole.
How tall is the flagpole?
:
This forms a right triangle, we can use the tangent of 54 degrees to find the opposite side (a) which is the flag pole
:
Tan(54) = a%2F20
a = 1.37638 * 20
a = 27.5276 ft
:
The telescope is 5' above the ground therefore:
27.5276 + 5 = 32.5276 is the height of the flag-pole