Paul walks 25 feet away from his house and places a mirror on the ground. He backs 5 feet away from the mirror so that he can see the tip of the roof. Paul's eyes are 6 feet above the ground. Paul and the house are both perpendicular to the ground. The angles between the top of the house, the mirror, and the ground and between Paul's eyes, the mirror, and the ground are congruent as shown in the image:

Question

ccswims · Answer

Prove the triangles are similar.

campbell_st · Answer

this is proven using the angle angle postulate 

since the house and paul are perpendicular to the ground, that means that the triangles contain 2 right angles

and you are told 2 angles are congruent

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if you know 2 angles are equal the 3rd angles will be equal by angle sum of a triangle