Question

A 12 foot pole casts a shadow of 16 feet. What is the distance between the end of the shadow and the top of the pole?

Answer 1

20 feet

Step-by-step explanation:

We can represent the situation with the following figure

So, we need to find the distance d between the end of the shadow and the top of the pole. Using the Pythagorean theorem where 12 and 16 are the legs and d is the hypotenuse, we get:

`\begin{gathered} d=\sqrt[]{12^2+16^2} \\ d=\sqrt[]{144+256} \\ d=\sqrt[]{400} \\ d=20 \end{gathered}`

Therefore, the distance is 20 feet.