Question

A survey or is conducting measures to see how wide a river is between points A and B. Using her surveying instrument, she creates two similar right triangles. AABC - AEDC, CE = 34 meters, DE=16 meters, and AC=85 meters. What is the distance between A and B? A C D B E O A) 24 m OB) 36 m OC) 40 m OD) 48 m

Answer 1

We have that the ratio is

$\frac{AC}{CE}=\frac{85}{34}$

So to find the AB we need to do

$\begin{gathered} AB\text{ = }DE\cdot\text{ }\frac{85}{34} \\ =\text{ }16\cdot\text{ }\frac{84}{34} \\ =\text{ }39,529411765 \end{gathered}$

The answer is AB = 40 m, option C.