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Homework Help: calculus

Posted by jin on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 1:24am.

A street light is at the top of a 16 ft tall pole. A woman 6 ft tall walks away from the pole with a speed of 4 ft/sec along a straight path. How fast is the tip of her shadow moving when she is 40 ft from the base of the pole?

• calculus - Damon, Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 9:28am

  L = pole to shadow tip
  x = pole to walker
  so (L-x) = walker to shadow tip
  L/16 = (L-x)/6 (similar triangles)
  6 L = 16 L - 16 x
  
  16 x = 10 L
  L = 1.6 x
  dL/dt = 1.6 dx/dt
  

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