Jason places a mirror on the ground 40 feet from the base of a tree. He walks backwards until he can see the top of the tree in
the middle of the mirror. At that point, Jason's eyes are 6 feet above the ground and he is 8 feet from the image in the mirror. What is the height of the tree?
Given that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, we can state tha the angle formed by the eyes of Jason with the mirror is equal to the angle formeb by the top of the three with the same mirror.
Then, you can write this similarity equation:
[height of the eyes of Jason] / [distance from the poistion of Jason to the image on the mirror] = [height of the tree / distance from the mirror to the base of the tree]
The standard form of a circle is where h and k are the center and x and y are the coordinates you're given. We need to solve for the radius to finish this off correctly. Filling in, we have and , giving us that . Therefore, our equation is
where h and k are the center and x and y are the coordinates you're given. We need to solve for the radius to finish this off correctly. Filling in, we have 
and 
, giving us that 
. Therefore, our equation is 