Using Similar Triangles To Find Unknown Length

[2013c7vette]

Hi everyone, I have a problem in my math book that says:

A telephone pole has a shadow of 16ft. when a person 5ft. tall has a shadow of 6ft. How tall is the pole?

My book says to draw a diagram to help, but I'm not sure what to draw. It also says that I should use the ratios of similar triangles to find the unknown dimension. Any Help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
2013c7vette

[stapel_eliz]

A telephone pole has a shadow of 16ft. when a person 5ft. tall has a shadow of 6ft. How tall is the pole?

My book says to draw a diagram to help, but I'm not sure what to draw. It also says that I should use the ratios of similar triangles to find the unknown dimension. Any Help would be much appreciated.

I'm surprised that your book does not contain any examples of this. To see a couple of worked examples, try here.

[2013c7vette]

Thanks