Question

A man is trying to calculate the shadow of a 24 flag pole. He uses similar triangles by comparing his own height 5 ft to the length of his shadow 2.5. Set up the proportion and solve for the length of the pole's shadow.

Answer 1

The answer to your question is 12 ft

Explanation:

Data

Height of the flag pole = 24

shadow of the flag pole = x

height of the man = 5 ft

shadow of the man = 2.5 ft

Process

1.- Use the Thales' theorem to solve this problem

shadow of the flag pole/height of the flag pole = shadow of the man/height

of the man

- Substitution

x/24 = 2.5/5

- Solve for x

x = 2.5(24)/5

- Simplification

x = 60/5

-Result

x = 12 ft