Question 496356
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/20}}}
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