Question

During a windstorm, part of the top of a flagpole breaks off. The broken top portion touches the ground at an angle of 65degrees 14feet from its base.

How tall was the pole before the windstorm? Round your answer to one decimal place. Can someone answer this please

Answer 1

The situation in the problem creates a right triangle with a base of 14ft. An angle of 65 degrees means that the triangles has...

A hypotenuse of
`hyp = (14ft)/(cos(45)) = 33.13ft`, representing the length of the broken part of the pole.

An opposite of
`sin(65)*hyp = sin(65)*33.1ft = 30.0ft`, representing the height of the part of the flag that still stands.

The total original flag height is the sum of the two parts.

`h = 30.0ft + 33.13ft = 63.13ft`