A 3-foot-tall mailbox casts a shadow that is 1.8 feet long. At the same time, a nearby street lamp casts a shadow that is 12 feet long. How tall is the street lamp?
+658 Imagine two right triangles. They are similar because the sun shines at the same angle or the problem wouldn't make sense with the info given.
1. \(\frac{\text{shadow}}{\text{height}}=\frac{\text{shadow}}{\text{height}}\)
2. \(\frac{1.8}{3}=\frac{12}{x}\)
3. Solve for \(x\)
Super-hard-impossible bonus question:
Given the information in the problem.
If you were able to stand on top of the mail box and look STRAIGHT up into the sky, the sky can represent a 2D coordinate plane. Where would the Sun be located in (x,y)?
Consider everything you know (sorry physicists)!
