A flagstaff stands on the top of a vertical tower. A man standing 60 m away from the tower observes that the angles of elevation of the top and bottom of the flagstaff are 64° and 62° respectively. Find the length of the flagstaff.
The correct answer is D. 60 (tan 64° - tan 62°)
Let's solve this problem step by step. We are given that a flagstaff stands on the top of a vertical tower and a man standing 60 m away from the tower observes that the angles of elevation of the top and bottom of the flagstaff are 64° and 62° respectively. We are asked to find the length of the flagstaff.
Let's call the height of the tower `h1` and the length of the flagstaff `h2`. Using the tangent function, we can write two equations for `h1` and `h2`:
tan(62°) = h1 / 60
h1 = 60 * tan(62°)
tan(64°) = (h1 + h2) / 60
h2 = 60 * tan(64°) - h1
Substituting the value of `h1` into the second equation, we get:
h2 = 60 * tan(64°) - 60 * tan(62°)
h2 = 60 * (tan(64°) - tan(62°))
So, the length of the flagstaff is **60 * (tan(64°) - tan(62°))**.
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