A Ladder that is 32 ft long leans against a building. The angle of elevation of the ladder is 70 degrees. To the nearest tenth of a foot how high off the ground is the top of the ladder?

A. 20.3 ft

B. 10.9 ft

C. 26.2 ft

D. 39.1 ft

To calculate how high the ladder is off the ground we shall use he formula:

sin θ=opposite / hypotenuse

from the information given:

from angle of elevation we shall have θ=90-70=20°

hypotenuse=length of the ladder=32 ft

opposite, x = distance off the ground

thus plugging the values in the formula we get:

sin 20=x/32

thus

x=32 sin 20

x=10.94465 ft

x~10.9 ft

the correct answer should be 30.1 ft