Michele wanted to measure the height of her school's flagpole. She placed a mirror on the ground 60 ft from the flag pole, then walked backward until she was able to see the top of the pole in the mirror. Her eyes are 5 feet above the ground and she was 12 feet from the mirror. Using similar triangles, find the height of the flag pole to the nearest tenth of a foot.
1. 25ft
2. 55ft
3. 38.4ft
4. 20ft
Let's call the height of the flagpole "h". We can create a right triangle with the height of the flagpole, the distance from the mirror to the flagpole, and the distance from Michele's eyes to the mirror.
Using similar triangles, we can set up a proportion:
(h+5)/h = 60/12
Cross multiplying, we get:
12(h+5) = 60h
Simplifying:
12h + 60 = 60h
48h = 60
h = 60/48
h ≈ 1.25
Therefore, the height of the flagpole is approximately 1.25 feet or 1.3 feet.
None of the given options are close to this answer, so the correct answer is not provided.