http://www.ck12.org Chapter 7. Similarity
7.5 Indirect Measurement
Here you’ll learn how to apply your knowledge of similar triangles and proportions to model real-life situations and
to find unknown measurements indirectly.
What if you wanted to measure the height of a flagpole using your friend George? He is 6 feet tall and his shadow
is 10 feet long. At the same time, the shadow of the flagpole was 85 feet long. How tall is the flagpole? After
completing this Concept, you’ll be able to use indirect measurement to help you answer this question.
Watch This
MEDIA
Click image to the left for use the URL below.
URL: http://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/52558CK-12 Foundation: Chapter7IndirectMeasurementA
MEDIA
Click image to the left for use the URL below.
URL: http://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/1345James Sousa: Indirect Measurement Using Similar Triangles
Guidance
An application of similar triangles is to measure lengthsindirectly.The length to be measured would be some feature
that was not easily accessible to a person, such as the width of a river or canyon and the height of a tall object. To
measure something indirectly, you need to set up a pair of similar triangles.