Question

A 180 ft. tall building casts a 54 ft. long shadow. If a person stands at the end of the shadow, what angle is the person looking up from to the top of the building? Round your answer to the nearest whole degree.
. answer in 2 sentences

Answer 1

To find the angle at which the person is looking up to the top of the building, we can use the tangent function: \( \tan(\theta) = \frac{\text{height}}{\text{shadow length}} = \frac{180}{54} \). Calculating this, we find \( \theta = \tan^{-1}(3.33) \), which rounds to approximately 74 degrees.