a girl that was 4 and a half feet tall was standing next to a telephone pole. at one 'o clock, her shadow was 8 ft. long, and the pole's was (i think) 36 ft. long, how tall was the pole?
this is from memory, since i forgot to bring the paper home. but i believe that is it.
I don't understand how to start.
PLEASE HELP!
THANKS!
you would have similar triangles, so by a simple ratio
h/36 = 4.5/8
h = 36*4.5/8 = 20.25
To solve this problem, you can use the concept of similar triangles. Similar triangles are two triangles that have the same shape but may have different sizes. The ratio of corresponding sides of similar triangles is constant.
Let's analyze the information given in the problem:
1. The girl's height is 4 and a half feet, which we can convert to 4.5 feet.
2. At 1 o'clock, the girl's shadow is 8 ft long.
3. At the same time, the pole's shadow is 36 ft long.
To start solving the problem, we need to find the ratio of the girl's height to her shadow. We can set up a proportion using the similar triangles concept:
Height of Girl / Length of Girl's Shadow = Height of Pole / Length of Pole's Shadow
Let's substitute the given values into the proportion:
4.5 ft / 8 ft = Unknown Pole Height / 36 ft
To find the unknown pole height, we can cross-multiply.
First, multiply 4.5 ft by 36 ft:
4.5 ft * 36 ft = 162 ft^2
Now, divide the result by 8 ft:
162 ft^2 / 8 ft = 20.25 ft
So, the height of the telephone pole is approximately 20.25 feet.
Keep in mind that these calculations are based on the assumption that the shadows are proportional to the heights.