Question

Logan wants to determine the height of an electric pole in her back yard. The pole is casting a shadow of 12 feet. Her friend is five feet tall and is casting a shadow of 2 feet. Draw a picture to determine the similar triangles. (a) What is the height of the electric pole? (b) What proportion can be used to solve the problem?

Answer 1

1) Gathering the data

shadow = height = 12 feet

friend = 5 ft tall and his shadow=2 ft

Let's visualize it:

2) Since we have similar triangles, (congruent angles and proportional legs) then we can write the following proportion:

`\begin{gathered} (h)/(5)=(14)/(2) \\ (h)/(5)=7 \\ h=35\text{ ft} \end{gathered}`

3) So the height of the electric pole is 35 ft