Coconut palm trees can reach heights of up to 100 feet. Suppose you are lying on the beach at a distance of 60 feet from a 48-ft tall palm tree. What is the angle of elevation from your position to the top of the tree? Round to the nearest tenth if necessary.

I think it is 38.7 but im not sure

Use pythagorus to find the length from your position to the top of the palm tree so: 48^2 + 60^2 = x^2

Should get 76.84

Then use the cosine rule to find the angle so the rule is:

C^2 = A^2 + B^2 - (2BC x cos c)

As the angle of elevation is opposite the length of the palm tree C is 48

And because you want the value of c you rearrange to get:

Cos c = A^2 + B^2 - C^2 / 2BC

So you should get Cos c = 0.781 then to find c which is the angle of elevation you do cos^-1 (0.781) = 38.65

Or instead of the cosine rule you can use simple trig and use the equation tan^-1 48/60 which also gives the angle = 38.65