Question

For a project in her Geometry class, Nayeli uses a mirror on the ground to measure the height of her school’s flagpole. She walks a distance of 13.45 meters from the flagpole, then places a mirror flat on the ground, marked with an X at the center. She then walks 1.95 more meters past the mirror, so that when she turns around and looks down at the mirror, she can see the top of the flagpole clearly marked in the X. Her partner measures the distance from her eyes to the ground to be 1.75 meters. How tall is the flagpole? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth of a meter.

Answer 1

12.07 m

Explanation:

This is a case of similar triangles, so lengths of corresponding sides are proportional.

Let h = height of pole.

h/13.45 = 1.75/1.95

1.95h = 13.45 × 1.75

h = 12.07

Answer: 12.07 m