Question

The angle of elevation of the top of a tower from a point 42 metres away from it's base on level ground is 26 degrees. find the height of the tower.

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Answer 1

20.485 Meters

Explanation:

So first you wanna draw a diagram. Start with the tower, then on the ground to the left (or right) draw a point. The point will be labeled as 42 m away from the tower. Now draw a line from that point to the top of the tower. This makes your triangle, and that angle you just drew that touches the point is 26 degrees.

Now, since you have a right triangle you can use trig. You know an angle and a side. Specifically, relative to the 26 degree angle you know the adjacent angle and want the opposite, which is the tower. So opposite and adjacent is tangent. So you set up tan(26) = o/42 where o is the opposite side.

So solving you get o = 20.485 meters