A student is standing 20 feet away from the base of a tree. He looks to the top of a tree at a 50 degree angle of elevation. His eyes are 5 feet above the ground. Using cos 50 degrees is about 0.64 what is the height of the treetops the nearest foot?

This is the concept of application of trigonometry. The height of the tree will be found as follows;

tan theta=[opposite]/[adjacent]

theta=50

opposite=height of the tree = (h+5)

adjacent=distance of the student from the tree

Thus:

tan 50 = (h+5) / 20

h+5=20tan50

h=5+20tan50

h=5+23.84

h=28.84

Therefore the height of the tree was:

28.84+5

=33.84

The answer is 29 fett