Question

A pole that is 3.1 m tall casts a shadow that is 1.16 m long. At the same time, a nearby building casts a shadow that is 46.25 m long. How tall is the building? Round your answer to the nearest meter.

Answer 1

Answer:

$124\text{ m}$

Explanation:

Here, we want to get the height of the building

Firstly, we need a diagrammatic representation of the presented information

We have that as follows:

The structures and their shadows form right triangles

Right triangles are similar

When two shapes are similar, the ratio of their corresponding sides is equal

Thus, we have it that:

$\begin{gathered} \frac{1.16}{3.1}\text{ = }\frac{46.25}{h} \\ \\ h\text{ = }\frac{46.25\times3.1}{1.16} \\ \\ h\text{ = 123.599 m} \end{gathered}$

To the nearest m, this is 124 m