Solving Trig Questions: Beginner Student Seeks Help

[Britney Simpson]

Hi Team...

Hope you can help me as I'm sooo confused right now. I've only been doing Math for about 4 months :( Any direction as to how to start solving this problem would be amazing...Fire Rescues

Fire trucks with extension ladders are used regularly to remove people from burning buildings. However, they are limited in how far they can reach, by both the length of the ladder and for stability reasons, the distance away from the edge of the building. Assume that the ladder is at the back of the truck 2 metres off the ground.
Unless stated otherwise, for the following questions all answers are to be given correct to two decimal places.

1) If the truck is parked 4 metres away from the base of the building, and the ladder, when fully extended, reaches a height of 16.46 m up the side of the building, find the length of the ladder to the nearest metre. You may wish to draw a diagram first.

2) The Fire chief decided that all fire trucks must park between 2 and 7.5 from buildings if the ladder is to be used fully extended. What is the maximum height that the ladder can reach from each extreme position.

3) How far from the wall is the truck if the fully extended ladder reaches a height of 15.5m

4) A building has its street level windows 1.5 metres above the ground and then the windows of successive floors are 4.2m apart vertical. Which would be the highest floor that the ladder could reach?

THANK YOU! = ) x

 

[jacobi1]

Hello and welcome to MHB, Britney! :D

So let's start with 1).
Is the ladder 16.46 meters above the ground or above the edge of the truck?
Once we have determined that, we can draw the correct diagram.
Have you tried to draw any diagrams yet? If so, what occurs to you as a likely way to solve the problem?