Two buckets have bases with radii in the ratio 2:5 The top of the small bucket has radius 7 inches Write the ratio of the height of small bucket to big bucket

Question

I am in eighth grade and this is math

Answer 1

since ratio of bases is 7 to 2, that's 3.5 to 1

odds are the ratio of heights i 3.5 to 1 too

but it could be any ratio

as the heights increase, approaching infinity, their ratios approach 1

or the heights could be totally unrelated with any possible ratio

without more info, go with 3.5, or maybe 2.5 as 5/2 = 2.5

0 1, 2.5, 3.5 or any number you prefer, but those are good guesses

unless the problem mean the slant height, not the altitude? if altitude is zero, then slant height ratio is 2.5

maybe go with 2.5

but these are buckets, maybe check a hardware store and see what the altitudes are of some common buckets, or go on line and find some numbers for altitude and slant heights, maybe take an average of largest and smallest buckets. some mathematicians argue for a geometric rather than arithmetic average.