Question
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Draw a diagram for the following situation:
The shadow of a tower standing on a level ground is found to be 40 m longer when
Sun’s altiude is than when it is . Find the height of the tower.

Ask by Ross Bradley. in India
Mar 24,2025

Upstudy AI Solution

Tutor-Verified Answer

Answer

The height of the tower is meters.

Solution

Here, the vertical line represents the tower of height . At a Sun altitude of the shadow on the level ground is longer, and its length is m, while at a Sun altitude of the shadow length is m.
Since the Sun’s rays create a right triangle with the tower and its shadow, we have:
  • For the Sun altitude :
  • For the Sun altitude :
We know that:
Thus, we obtain:
Substitute the value of from the second equation into the first:
Solve for :
Simplify the expression inside the parentheses:
Thus,
Therefore, the height of the tower is:

Answered by UpStudy AI and reviewed by a Professional Tutor

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Explain
Simplify this solution

Mind Expander

To solve the problem and find the height of the tower, we can use some trigonometry! When the sun’s altitude is at and , the lengths of the shadows and the height of the tower can be related using the tangent function.
Here’s a way to visualize this:
  1. Draw a vertical line representing the tower of height .
  2. At the angle, draw a horizontal line (shadow) extending from the base of the tower – let’s call this shadow length .
  3. At the angle, draw a shorter horizontal shadow of length (since it is 40 m shorter).
Now, using the tangent formulas:
  • For :
  • For :
Now you have two equations for :
Set these equal to each other and solve for :
Solving this equation will give you the value of , and you can substitute back to find . Happy calculating!

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