SOLUTION: Hi, I have a word problem that i cant figure out...You are standing 16 feet from the base of a flag pole. Both your shadow and the poles shadow extend to the same point 4 feet away

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Question 29552: Hi, I have a word problem that i cant figure out...You are standing 16 feet from the base of a flag pole. Both your shadow and the poles shadow extend to the same point 4 feet away from you. You are 5 feet tall. Find the height of the flag pole.

I would appreciate any help you can give me...thank you Nick
Answer by longjonsilver(2297) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Draw this as a simple triangle picture...you will get a smaller triangle inside the larger one...th equestion is one of similar triangles...basically of ratio.

smaller triangle: height to vertical distance
smaller triangle: 5:4
scale it up --> 25:20

Now larger triangle has vertical distance of shadow being 16+4 --> 20, so looking at the above ratio, the height is 25feet.

Jon.