A sailor judges the distance to a lighthouse by holding a ruler at arm's length and measuring the apparent height of the lighthouse. He knows that the lighthouse is actually 60 feet tall. If it appears to be 3 inches tall when the ruler is held 2 feet from his eye, how far away is it?

Answer: 480 ftStep-by-step explanation:We can use Similarity of Triangles.            | lighthouse                                     60 ft     |                                                     ruler            |___________                     3 in |__                             x                                         2 ft3 inches = 0.25 ft60/0.25 = x/20.25x = 120x = 120/0.25x = 480 ft