SOLUTION: For a project in her Geometry class, Madeline uses a mirror on the ground to measure the height of her school building. She walks a distance of 9.45 meters from the building, then

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Question 1190408: For a project in her Geometry class, Madeline uses a mirror on the ground to measure the height of her school building. She walks a distance of 9.45 meters from the building, then places a mirror flat on the ground, marked with an X at the center. She then walks 2.75 more meters past the mirror, so that when she turns around and looks down at the mirror, she can see the top of the school clearly marked in the X. Her partner measures the distance from her eyes to the ground to be 1.55 meters. How tall is the school? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth of a meter.

Answer by greenestamps(13200)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!


The description is not perfectly clear.... I will assume the 9.45 meters and 2.75 meters are the distances from Madeline and the building from the X -- and not the distances to the edges of the mirror.

Use corresponding parts of similar triangles.
    Madeline's eyes height         building's height
  -------------------------- = --------------------------
  Madeline's distance from X   building's distance from X

   1.55     x
   ---- = ----
   2.75   9.45

x = ((1.55)(9.45))/(2.75)

Use a calculator....


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