Problem

5. Suppose you are a computer animator. You are creating a scene where the character is walking toward a street light and need to create the character's shadow on the ground. If the character is to have a height of 6 feet relative to the background scenery and the street light is 20 feet tall, how fast should you make the shadow decrease in length when the character is 24 feet from the base of the lamppost and walking toward the post at a rate of 5 feet per second?

Answer

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Answer

\( \boxed{\frac{dl}{dt} = -\frac{15}{7}} \)

Steps

Step 1 :\( h = 6 \text{ feet} \)

Step 2 :\( H = 20 \text{ feet} \)

Step 3 :\( \frac{dd}{dt} = -5 \text{ feet/second} \)

Step 4 :\( \frac{h}{l} = \frac{H}{d + l} \)

Step 5 :\( hd + hl = Hl \)

Step 6 :\( hd = l(H - h) \)

Step 7 :\( l = \frac{hd}{H - h} \)

Step 8 :\( \frac{dl}{dt} = \frac{h}{H - h} \frac{dd}{dt} \)

Step 9 :\( \frac{dl}{dt} = \frac{6}{20 - 6} (-5) \)

Step 10 :\( \frac{dl}{dt} = -\frac{30}{14} \)

Step 11 :\( \boxed{\frac{dl}{dt} = -\frac{15}{7}} \)

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