Question

A tree casts a 35 meter long shadow at a time when the sun is 41° above the horizon. How tall is the tree?

Would the answer be 53 meters?

Answer 1

Try drawing a figure. Height is what we are finding, base of triangle is 35 meters. The angle theta is 41 degrees. Use the definition of tangent. tan(41 degrees) = height/35

Answer 2

So, no the answer is not 53 meters. Rather, it is approximately 30.425 m