QuestionA 7 - ft ladder leans against the side of a house. How far Is the bottom of the ladder from the side of the house when the angle of elevation of the ladder Is ? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. ft Check Save For Later Submit Assian
Studdy Solution
STEP 1
What is this asking?
How far is the base of a 7-foot ladder from a house if the ladder makes a angle with the ground?
Watch out!
Don't mix up the sides of the triangle!
We're looking for the *adjacent* side, not the *opposite* side.
STEP 2
1. Draw a triangle
2. Set up the cosine
3. Solve for the adjacent side
STEP 3
Imagine the ladder, the house, and the ground forming a **right triangle**!
The ladder is the **hypotenuse**, the house is the **opposite** side, and the ground between the ladder and the house is the **adjacent** side.
STEP 4
Draw a right triangle.
Label the **hypotenuse** as ft (the length of the ladder).
Mark the angle between the ladder and the ground as .
We want to find the length of the **adjacent** side, so label it .
STEP 5
Recall that .
This is perfect because we know the angle () and the hypotenuse ( ft), and we want to find the adjacent side!
STEP 6
Substitute the known values into the cosine formula:
STEP 7
To get by itself, we need to multiply both sides of the equation by .
This is like dividing both sides by to turn the into .
Remember, we do the same thing to both sides to keep the equation balanced!
STEP 8
Now, grab your calculator and find the cosine of .
You should get approximately .
Multiply this by :
STEP 9
The problem asks for the answer to the nearest tenth, so we round to ** ft**.
STEP 10
The bottom of the ladder is approximately ft from the side of the house.
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