Question

Question
A 16-foot ladder leans against a wall so that the ladder’s angle of elevation is 55°. Find x, the distance between the foot of the ladder and the base of the building. Use cosine to solve for the missing side and round your answer to the nearest hundredth.(1 point)
Responses

x=27.90 ft.

x equals 27.90 ft.

x=9.18 ft.

x equals 9.18 ft.

x=52.87 ft.

x equals 52.87 ft.

x=13.11 ft.

x equals 13.11 ft.

Answer 1

Use cos(55°) = adjacent/hypotenuse = x/16. So x = 16·cos(55°) ≈ 16·0.573576 = 9.18 ft (to the nearest hundredth).