SOLUTION: A flagpole is 12 ft tall casts a 9 foot-shadow. How far is it from the top of the flagpole to the tip of the shadow?

Question 549576: A flagpole is 12 ft tall casts a 9 foot-shadow. How far is it from the top of the flagpole to the tip of the shadow?

Found 2 solutions by mathie123, stanbon:
Answer by mathie123(224) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
This is just a right angled triangle with a base of 9, and a height of 12 (assuming the pole is not tilted, which I would think is a safe assumption)
So we have a special theorem to find the length of the remaining side (what we are looking for). Pythagorean theorem!

This says:

where c is the hypotenuse
so we have

So the distance from the top of the flagpole to the tip of the shadow is 15 ft. ((for questions like these, draw a picture first-- it helps a ton!))
Have a good one!
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A flagpole is 12 ft tall casts a 9 foot-shadow. How far is it from the top of the flagpole to the tip of the shadow?
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Draw the figure.
You have a right triangle with height = 12 and base = 9
----
Hypotenuse = sqrt[12^2+9^2] = 15
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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