math help!?

Question

At 11:00 a.m. a one-meter-high mailbox casts a 0.2-meter shadow. If a pole beside the mailbox casts a 8-meter shadow, how tall is that pole? thank you.

Answer 1

Assuming the mailbox and the pole are vertical, their respective heights and shadow lengths have the same proportion at the same time, so:

1 m / 0.2 m = x / 8 m

where x is the height of the pole. Rearranging and solving for x:

5 = x / 8

x = 40 meters