SOLUTION: A ladder 3.5 metres long is leaning against the wall. The foot of the ladder is 1.0 metres from the wall to the nearest degree. What angle does the ladder make with the ground? ca

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Question 701262: A ladder 3.5 metres long is leaning against the wall. The foot of the ladder is 1.0 metres from the wall to the nearest degree. What angle does the ladder make with the ground?
can you please help me out? Thanks so much in advance:)
Answer by Simnepi(216) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If you draw a diagram of the situation you should be able to see a right angled triangle formed by the wall and the floor and the ladder will be the hypotenuse.
The base of the triangle is 1 metre, and the hypotenuse is 3.5 m.
The angle at the base of the triangle that the ladder makes with the wallis found by using trigonometry.
Since we know the side adjacent (next to) the angle and the hypotenuse we have to use the cosine ratio.
Cosine+%28angle%29+=+%28side_adjacent_to_the_angle%29%2Fhypotenuse
Therefore
Cosine%28angle%29+=+%281%2F3.5%29
therefore we find that
Cosine%28angle%29=0.285714285714...%29
to find the angle that has this cosine we use the inverse function of the cosine which is known as the arccosine
so
arccos+0.572814...+=+angle
using a calculator we find that
angle = 73.398 degrees.