A student looks out of a second story school window and sees the top of the school flagpole at an angle of evelation of 22 degrees. The student is currently 18 feet above the ground. The building is 50 ft from the base of the flagpole.
a. Draw a diagram of the above scenario.
b. Find the height of the flagpole.
+33665 b. tan(elevation angle) = (height of flagpole above ground - height of student above ground)/distance from base
tan(22°) = (h - 18)/50 where h = height of flagpole above ground
Multiply both sides by 50
50*tan(22°) = h - 18
Add 18 to both sides
h = 50*tan(22°) + 18 ≈ 38.2 ft
