tom and the mirror: Tom is standing 3 ft away from a mirror and the angle of elevation to the top of the mirror from his head is 30 degrees and the angle of depression to the foot of the mirror from his head is 60 degrees. How tall is tom? what is the total height of the mirror?

Question

anonymous · Answer

how do i solve this...:(

anonymous · Answer

Draw a diagram and look at the triangles.

anonymous · Answer

i drew it.  my answer is squareroot of 3. which i think is wrong...

anonymous · Answer

Though, are we to assume that Tom's feet and the bottom of the mirror are at the same elevation (i.e. both are on the floor?)

anonymous · Answer

well it didnt say anything about that in the problem..

anonymous · Answer

i  we could assume that because it didnt say that tom was standing on something...

anonymous · Answer

Hmm, I think we need to make that assumption here to get a common point of reference for measuring both heights.
There are three right triangles that are similar to each other (all 30-60-90). You can set up your equations using proportions.

anonymous · Answer

This is what I'm looking at:
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