Question

Jesse places a mirror on the ground 25 ft from the base of a light pole. He walks backward until he can see the top of the light pole in the middle of the mirror. At that point, Jesse’s eyes are 6 ft above the ground and he is 5.5 ft from the mirror. Draw a sketch of this situation and use similar triangles to find the height of the light pole. Round to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

27.3 ft

Step-by-step explanation:

Since the height of the light pole is unknown (call it h), it is convenient to write the proportion for the similar triangles using the ratio height/base.

... x/(25 ft) = (6 ft)/(5.5 ft)

Multiplying by 25 ft, we have ...

... x = (25 ft)(6/5.5) = 300/11 ft = 27 3/11 ft

... x ≈ 27.3 ft