SOLUTION: a small bird is sitting on top of 3' mailbox. It flies in a direct line up to the top of the tree, barely clearing a 5' fence that is 4' from the mailbox and 12' from the tree. How

Question 1078227: a small bird is sitting on top of 3' mailbox. It flies in a direct line up to the top of the tree, barely clearing a 5' fence that is 4' from the mailbox and 12' from the tree. How tall is the tree?
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
a small bird is sitting on top of 3' mailbox. It flies in a direct line up to the top of the tree, barely clearing a 5' fence that is 4' from the mailbox and 12' from the tree. How tall is the tree?
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Sketch the figure.
You have a right triangle with a proportional right
triangle at the acute-angle end of the larger triangle.
---
The triangles are proportional.
Equation:
Smaller triangle DATA::
height = 5'-3' = 2'
base = 4'
----
Larger triangle DATA:
base = 12'
height = h
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Equation to find "h"::
h/12 = 2/4
height of the tree = 6'
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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