Problema Solution
An engineer on the ground is looking at the top of a building. The angle of elevation to the top of the building is 45°. The engineer knows the building is 250 ft tall. What is the distance from the engineer to the base of the building to the nearest whole foot?
Answer provided by our tutors
let 'd' be the distance from the engineer to the base of the building
make a good drawing and notice the right triangle (the building and the ground make 90 degree angle)
tan (45) = 250/d
250/d = 1 multiply both sides by d
d = 250 ft
the distance from the engineer to the base of the building is 250 ft.