Question
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.
The shadow of a tower standing on a level ground is found to be 40 m longer when
Sun’s altiude is
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:
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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:
- Draw a vertical line representing the tower of height
. - At the
angle, draw a horizontal line (shadow) extending from the base of the tower – let’s call this shadow length . - 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!