Jamal is hanging up Christmas lights in his front yard to mimic the look of a Christmas tree. He starts by placing a pole in the ground and then extending strands of lights from the top of the pole to the ground in a circular pattern. The pole is 9 feet tall once placed in the ground, and each light strand is 16 feet long. If he attaches a strand of lights to the top of the pole and extends it down to the ground, what is the angle formed between the light strand and the pole? Round your answer to the nearest tenth.(1 point)
The angle measure is approximately
58.5
°.
Incorrect
Cosine is the ratio of an adjacent leg to the hypotenuse. The inverse of cosine results in an angle measure formed between the adjacent leg and the hypotenuse.
To find the angle formed between the light strand and the pole, we can use the cosine function.
To do this, we can consider the pole as the adjacent side and the lights strand as the hypotenuse of a right triangle. The height of the pole is 9 feet and the length of the light strand is 16 feet.
Using the cosine function:
cos(angle) = adjacent / hypotenuse
cos(angle) = 9 / 16
angle = arccos(9 / 16)
angle ≈ 58.5 degrees
Therefore, the angle formed between the light strand and the pole is approximately 58.5 degrees.