Question

The first tower that you decided to examine was the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France was part of the 1900 World's Fair. A surveyor set up his transit to measure the angle from the ground to the top of the tower, which was found to be 40 degrees. The distance from the center of the bottom of the tower to the vertex of the 40 degree angle is 202 meters.

How tall is the tower? Round your answer to the nearest full meter.

Answer 1

The triangle in the image is a right triangle. We are given a side and an angle, and asked to find another side. Therefore, we should use a trigonometric function.

Trigonometric Functions: SOH-CAH-TOA

---sin = opposite/hypotenuse, cosine = adjacent/hypotenuse, tangent = opposite/adjacent

In this problem, looking from the angle, we are given the adjacent side and want to find the opposite side. This means we should use the tangent function.

tan(40) = x / 202

x = tan(40) * 202

x = 169.498

x (rounded) = 169 meters

Answer: the tower is 169 meters tall

Hope this helps!