the top of a giant slide is 30 ft off the ground. the slide rises at a 30 degree angle. to the nearst whole foot, what is the distance down the slide?

60 ft

To find the distance down the slide, we can use the right triangle formed by the slide, the ground, and the height. Given that the angle of elevation is 30 degrees, we know that the opposite side of this angle is 30 ft (the height) and we need to find the adjacent side (the distance down the slide).

To do this, we can use trigonometric functions. In this case, we'll use the cosine function, which relates the adjacent side and the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

cos(angle) = adjacent / hypotenuse

cos(30 degrees) = adjacent / 30 ft

The cosine of 30 degrees is (√3) / 2, so we have:

(√3) / 2 = adjacent / 30 ft

To solve for adjacent (the distance down the slide), we can rearrange the equation:

adjacent = (30 ft) * (√3) / 2

Using a calculator, we can simplify this expression:

adjacent ≈ 15√3 ft ≈ 25.98 ft

Rounding to the nearest whole foot, the distance down the slide is approximately 26 ft.