If a 4-meter flagpole casts a 6-meter shadow at the same time that a nearby building casts a 24-meter shadow, how tall is the building?

1 Answer
May 17, 2016

Building is #16# meters tall.

Explanation:

When shadows are cast by sun which is very very far (infinitely), they are parallel and triangles formed by shadow and vertical object are similar.

Therefore height of flagpole and its shadow will be proportional to building, whose height is say #h# and its shadow.

Hence, #h/24=4/6#

or #h=(4xx24)/6=(4xx4cancel(24))/(1cancel6)=4xx4=16# #meters#