Question

Question
A telephone tower casts a 50-foot shadow that makes a 48° angle with the ground. If Fiona wants to find the length of the cable that secures the tower to the ground, how should she set up the problem?

Option #1: cos48°=x50


Option #2: cos48°=50x


Option #3: cos50°=50x


(1 point)

Answer 1

Option #2.

Reason: The cable is the hypotenuse, the shadow (50 ft) is the adjacent side, and cos(48°) = adjacent/hypotenuse = 50/x. So x = 50 / cos48°.