How do you get the height of a triangle with only the base.

Question

i have to measure a shadow of a tree and find the height.

Answer 1

I assume you are doing a basic trig problem.

You can step off the length of the shadow.

You have to estimate the angle whose sides are the shadow and the imaginary line from end of the shadow to the top of the tree--the angle of elevation.

If @ is the angle, s=length of shadow, h=height of tree, then

tan@ =h/s

stan@ = h