Igor who is 4ft 8inches tall wishes to find the height of an oak tree in front of his castle. He walks along the shadow of the tree until the end of his shadow excatly overlaps the end of the tree's shadow. At that point he is 22ft from the foot of the tree and 11ft from the end of the shadows. How tall is the oak tree?
help would be amazing!!

Question

Igor who is 4ft 8inches tall wishes to find the height of an oak tree in front of his castle. He walks along the shadow of the tree until the end of his shadow excatly overlaps the end of the tree's shadow. At that point he is 22ft from the foot of the tree and 11ft from the end of the shadows. How tall is the oak tree?
help would be amazing!!<33

anonymous · Answer

What do you not understand?

anonymous · Answer

I could give you the answer but I'd like to help you learn how to solve these questions so you won't need help again.

anonymous · Answer

Well I don't understand how to draw the picture, the word probblems are weird to me

anonymous · Answer

Ok I will draw and attach sketches step by step.

anonymous · Answer

thanks so much!

anonymous · Answer

No problem, so first it says Igor is 4 feet and 8 inches tall. So draw a line from the "ground" and label its measure as 4 feet and 8 inches.

anonymous · Answer

He wants to find the height of the oak tree, we'll make another line to the ground and label it X because we don't know what it is yet.

anonymous · Answer

mkay yeah

anonymous · Answer

gotcha what next?

anonymous · Answer

So it would be 4.8/11=x/11?

anonymous · Answer

Whoops I misread something! I apologize! And no it's not 4.8 because it's 8 out of 12 inches not 8 out of 10.

anonymous · Answer

So what would the equation be?

anonymous · Answer

Ok first you understand the the height of the tree will be similar to the height of the man?

anonymous · Answer

yes

anonymous · Answer

Ok the sketch will actually look like the following and I will explain:

anonymous · Answer

He follows the shadow until the end of his shadow is at the same point as the end of the tree's shadow. In this process he has moved 22 feet in front of the tree.

anonymous · Answer

attachment

anonymous · Answer

From where he stands, the shadows end 11 feet away from him.

anonymous · Answer

Now, see the 2 similar triangles?

anonymous · Answer

Tell me what you think the ratio of similarity should be.

anonymous · Answer

maybe 56/132=x/132?

anonymous · Answer

Good guess but no. If you look closely, you can see that to find the bottom side measurement of the larger triangle you must add 11 feet + 22 feet.

anonymous · Answer

So the tree's shadow is actually 33 feet long.

anonymous · Answer

and the man's is 11 feet long.

anonymous · Answer

So, in inches the similarity should be:

56/132 = x/396

Make sense?

anonymous · Answer

oh okay I see!:) thanks so much!!!

anonymous · Answer

I'm glad I could help :)

anonymous · Answer

Don't forget to convert the answer back to feet after you've finished!

anonymous · Answer

oh i totally forgot thanks!