A telephone pole is 55 feet tall. Jeri stands in the shadow of the pole. She is 66 inches tall, gut her shadow is 12 feet long. How far away from the telephone pole is she standing.
To find how far Jeri is standing from the telephone pole, we can use similar triangles. Let's represent the height of the telephone pole as A, Jeri's height as B, the length of Jeri's shadow as C, and the distance from Jeri to the pole as D.
We have the following proportions:
A/B = C/D
Given:
- A = 55 feet (height of the pole)
- B = 66 inches (height of Jeri)
- C = 12 feet (length of Jeri's shadow)
First, let's convert Jeri's height from inches to feet:
B = 66 inches * (1 foot/12 inches) = 5.5 feet
Now we plug the known values into the proportion:
55 feet / 5.5 feet = 12 feet / D
Cross-multiplying:
55D = 5.5 * 12
D = (5.5 * 12) / 55
D ≈ 1.2 feet
So, Jeri is standing approximately 1.2 feet away from the telephone pole.