SOLUTION: word problem: To make sure a tree does not hit your house when you cut it, you need to know how tall it is. If a yardstick casts a 2 ft. shadow at the same time the tree casts a

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Question 16471: word problem: To make sure a tree does not hit your house when you cut it, you need to know how tall it is. If a yardstick casts a 2 ft. shadow at the same time the tree casts a 30 ft. shadow, how tall is the tree?
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Use similar triangles to solve this problem.
The yard stick (1 yd = 3 ft.) is the vertical leg of one right triangle and its shadow (2 ft) is the base.
The tree (h ft.) is the vertical leg of the second right triangle and its shadow (30 ft) is the base.
Recalling that "corresponding sides of similar triangles are proportional", you can form a proportion to find h, the height of the tree.
3%2F2+=+h%2F30 Multiply both sides by 30.
h+=+90%2F2 = 45 feet.