SOLUTION: Hello. I need your help. If the angle of elevation of the sun is 36°, how long is the shadow cast by a flagpole 12 feet hugh standing on level ground?

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Question 955740: Hello. I need your help.
If the angle of elevation of the sun is 36°, how long is the shadow cast by a flagpole 12 feet hugh standing on level ground?
Answer by rothauserc(4718) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
We use some trigonometry to solve this problem
we have a right triangle formed by the flag pole, the shadow, and 36 degrees from the horizontal, therefore we have
tangent(36 degrees) = 12 / x where x is the length of the shadow
note that tangent is the ratio of the opposite side to the adjacent side
now,
x * tangent(36) = 12
x = 12 / tangent(36) = 12 / 0.726542528 = 16.516583046 approx 16.5
the shadow is 16.5 feet long