A Flagpole casts a 60 foot long shadow on the ground. The angle from the tip of the flagpole to the end of the flagpole's shadow measures 35 degrees. How tall is the flagpole?

can i use cos(55degrees) = 60/h
which gives me 104.61.
Please check. Thanks!

nope, no cosine

60/h=tanTheta

To solve this problem, you can indeed use the cosine function. However, the angle you need to use is not 55 degrees, but rather the complementary angle to 35 degrees.

The complementary angle to 35 degrees is 90 degrees minus 35 degrees, which is 55 degrees.

With that correction, the equation becomes:

cos(55 degrees) = Adjacent side / Hypotenuse

Here, the adjacent side is the height of the flagpole (opposite to the angle of 35 degrees), and the hypotenuse is the length of the shadow (60 feet).

Plugging in the values, the equation becomes:

cos(55 degrees) = height / 60

Now, to find the height, you can solve for it:

height = cos(55 degrees) * 60
height ≈ 44.21 feet

Therefore, the flagpole is approximately 44.21 feet tall.