Question

The length of a tree's shadow is 20 feet when the angle of elevation to the sun is 40 degrees. How tall is the tree?

Answer 1

The height of the tree is `16.78 (2dp)` feet.

Explanation:

Let `x` be the height of the tree. The length of shadow of tree is `l=20` feet and elevation of sun is `theta=40^0`.

Then, `tan theta = x/l or tan 40 = x/20 or x=20tan40=16.78 (2dp)`feet.

The height of the tree is `16.78 (2dp)` feet.[Ans]