Related rates question, shadow

shanshan
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Homework Statement


A man 6m tall walks away from a light 10m above the ground. If his shadow lengthens at a rate of 2m/s, how fast is he walking?


Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution


I have nothing.
 
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Using similar triangles you can find the relationship between the shadow length (B) and distance away from pole (A).


Keeping in mind that you are given dB/dt and asked to find dA/dt
 
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but how can i use similar triangles if i only have one of the dimensions of the triangle?
 
shanshan said:
but how can i use similar triangles if i only have one of the dimensions of the triangle?

Look at the picture I attached. The relationship between ratios is constant, therefore the relationship between speed of man and length of shadow is constant
 
ahhhh and the light goes on. thankyou!
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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