Question

A building cast a shadow that is 245 ft. in length. If the distance from theshadow to the top of the building is 250 ft, How tall is the building?

Answer 1

You have the next situation:

As the building and its shadow form a angle of 90º (right angle), you use the Pythagoras theorem:

`x=\sqrt[]{h^2-s^2}`

The measure of x is equal to the square root of hypothenusa squared less the shadow measure squared:

`\begin{gathered} x=\sqrt[]{(250ft)^2-(245ft)^2} \\ x=\sqrt[]{62500ft^2-60025ft^2} \\ x=\sqrt[]{2475ft^2} \\ x=49.749ft\approx49.7ft \end{gathered}`Then, the building is 49.7 feet tall