Ed's distance to the mirror is 12ft
The distance from the lighthouse to the mirror is 100ft. The distance of Ed's eyes to the ground is 5ft. What is the scale factor and how tall is the lighthouse?
To find the scale factor, we need to compare the distances of Ed's eyes to the mirror and the lighthouse to the mirror.
The distance from Ed's eyes to the mirror is given as 12ft, and the distance from the lighthouse to the mirror is given as 100ft.
The scale factor can be calculated by dividing the distance from the lighthouse to the mirror by the distance from Ed's eyes to the mirror:
Scale factor = (Distance from lighthouse to mirror) / (Distance from Ed's eyes to mirror)
= 100ft / 12ft
= 8.33 (rounded to two decimal places)
The scale factor tells us how much larger or smaller the lighthouse is compared to Ed. In this case, the lighthouse is approximately 8.33 times taller than Ed.
To find the height of the lighthouse, we can multiply the height of Ed by the scale factor:
Height of lighthouse = Height of Ed x Scale factor
= 5ft x 8.33
= 41.65ft (rounded to two decimal places)
Therefore, the scale factor is 8.33 and the lighthouse is approximately 41.65 feet tall.