Question

roger is 5 feet tall and casts a shadow 3.5 feet longer. at the same time,the flagpole outside his school casts a shadow 14 feet long. write and solve a proportion to find the height of the flagpole.

Answer 1

since the height/shadow ratio is the same

5/3.5 = h/14

or, just note that the pole's shadow id 4 times as long, so the pole is 4 times as tall.

Answer 2

well I always start by drawing a small diagram just to help you visualize. you can see that you need to set a proportion of

Rogers height Poles height
_____________ = ______________
Rogers shadow Poles shadow

5 P
_ = __
3.5 15

now you can cross multiply
5(15)=3.5(P)
75=3.5P
P= 21.4 feet tall