The building is on fire and we need to make sure the people in there are evacuated.
We need to make sure that the ladder is safely put up when we check the windows.
Since ladders should be set at a 75 degree angle and the stairs block the feet of a ladder by 5 feet, we need to place it six feet away from the building. Using the equation cos75=6/x to find the height to extend the ladder to. We find that the ladder needs to be 23.18 ft tall.
Good, no one was in that room. For this window, which is 15 ft. above ground, we use the equation tan75=15/x to find a safe distance to put the ladder. For this window, we place it 4.02 ft away from the building.
That room didn’t have anyone in it either. We have to check the roof for people. We’ll use the lamp post to support the ladder.
The roof of the building is 25 ft tall and the ladder extended all the way measures 35 ft. Using the equation sinx=25 /35, we can find the angle at which to put the ladder. We find this angle to be 45.58
Thankfully, nobody was in the building, but trigonometry made sure that we could do our job safely.