To estimate the height of a totem pole, Jorge uses a small square of plastic. He holds the square up to his eyes and walks backw

Question

2 years ago

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To estimate the height of a totem pole, Jorge uses a small square of plastic. He holds the square up to his eyes and walks backw

ard from the pole. He stops when the bottom of the pole lines up with the bottom edge of the square and the top of the pole lines up with the top edge of the square. Jorge's eye level is about 2 m from the ground. He is about 3 m from the pole. Which of the following is the best estimate of the height of the totem pole?

Mathematics

1 answer:

Ghella [55] · Answer 1 · 2023-09-13T16:25:05+03:00

The height of the pole is 6.50 meters

<h3>How to calculate the height?</h3>

To calculate the height of the pole, we will use of the following equivalent ratios.

By Pythagoras theorem, we have:

$x ^2 = 2^2 + 3^2\\\\x ^2 = 4 + 9\\\\x = \sqrt{13}$

So, we have:

$h = \dfrac{\sqrt{13}^2 }{2} \\\\h = \dfrac{13}{2}\\\\h = 6.5$

Hence, the height of the pole is 6.50 meters