A construction worker leans his ladder against a building making a 60 degree angle with the ground. If the ladder is 20 feet long, how far away is the base or the ladder from the building? Round to the nearest tenth

Answer: the distance from the base of the ladder from the building is 10 feet.

Step-by-step explanation:

The ladder forms a right angle triangle with the wall of the building and the ground.

The length of the ladder represents the hypotenuse of the right angle triangle.

The distance, h of the base of the ladder from the building represents the adjacent side of the triangle.

To determine h, we would apply

the cosine trigonometric ratio.

Cos θ = adjacent side/hypotenuse. Therefore,

Cos 60 = h/20

h = 20Cos60 = 20 * 0.5

h = 10 feet