Alarge totem pole in the state of washington is 100 ft tall. at a particular time of day, the totem pole casts a 249-ft-long shadow. find the measure of a to the nearest degree.

I'm assuming A=the hypotenuse

Set an equation using the pythagorean theorem:
100^2+249^2=a^2
10000+62001=a^2
72001=a^2
a=±268.3

Since distance cannot be negative, the answer would be:

A=about 268.3ft