11. The shadow of a tower, when the angle of elevation of the sun is 45°, is found to be 10 m longer than when it was 60°. Find the height of the tower.
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Answer the following questions, using trigonometry rules.
Class 10th CBSE, Rd Sharma, some applications of trigonometry
Solution:
Let the height of the tower(AB) = h m
Let the length of the shorter shadow be x m
Then, the longer shadow is (10 + x)m
So, from fig. In ΔABC
tan 60o = AB/BC
√3 = h/x
x = h/√3…. (i)
Next, in ΔABD
tan 45o = AB/BD
1 = h/(10 + x)
10 + x = h
10 + (h/√3) = h [using (i)]
10√3 + h = √3h
h(√3 -1) =10√3
h = 10√3/ (√3 -1)
After rationalising the denominator, we have
h = [10√3 x (√3 + 1)]/ (3 – 1)
h = 5√3(√3 + 1)
h = 5(3 + √3) = 23.66 [√3 = 1.732]
Therefore, the height of the tower is 23.66 m.