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Brian wants to measure the height of a tree. He sights the top of the tree, using a mirror that is lying flat on the ground. The mirror is 37 ft from the tree, and Brian is standing 10.7 ft from the mirror, as shown in the figure. His eyes are 6 ft above the ground. How tall is the tree? figure is not to scale

Brian wants to measure the height of a tree. He sights the top of the tree, using-example-1
User Danpop
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1 Answer

5 votes

Given:

We have height of Brian is 6 ft, Brian is standing 10.7 ft from the mirror, mirror is 37 ft from the tree.

Required:

We need to find the height of tree.

Step-by-step explanation:

Here triangle ABC and triangle EDC are similar triangles

so we can also apply that


\begin{gathered} (AB)/(BC)=(ED)/(DC) \\ x=37*(6)/(10.7)=20.75\text{ ft} \end{gathered}

Final answer:

The tree is 20.75 ft tall.

Brian wants to measure the height of a tree. He sights the top of the tree, using-example-1
User Alexander Korostin
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