how tall is the flagpole ?

Question

A flagpole casts a shadow 48 ft long at the same time that a 6 ft tall person casts a shadow 24 ft long. How tall is the flagpole ?

Answer 1

This is a proportions question that you need to set up. If a 6 ft person casts a 24 ft long shadow, set up your equation to 6 ft. height/24 ft. shadow=height of the flagpole/48 ft. shadow. Then, you would cross multiply: 6 x 48 = 24 x height of the flagpole. This results in 288 = 24x, so x= 12 ft. The flagpole is 12 ft. in height. Hope this helps!