Not sure what I do here

Question

chloe has a picture of her cat she wants to reduce the picture on a copier machine the picture is 12 inches tall and 18 inches wide if she reduces the width by 3 inches how tall will the picture be

Answer 1

Hello Heather,

 

What we have here is a ratio problem.  We need to keep the ratio consistent.  In the original photo, the ratio if length to width is 12:18.  Simplified, that is 2:3 (I divided both by 6).  So, if we want the picture to be 9 inches tall, we need to maintain the ratio.  The new ratio will be something to 15 (the new width).  So, we can maintain the ratio by making the length 10. 10:15 is a 2:3 ratio.

 

This can also be solved by cross multiplying.

 

12        x

---  =  ---

18       15

 

18x = 180

x= 10

 

Hope that helps! Please feel free to reach out if you have any other questions or need some more help!

 

-

Sally

Answer 2

This is a ratio problem

width = 18

18 - 3 = 15

 

12/18 = L/15, or "12 is to 18 as what is to fifteen?"

Multiply both sides by 15:

 

12 * 15 / 18 = L

We can factor out a 6:

2 * 15 / 3 = L

We can also factor out 3:

2 * 5 / 1 = L

10 = L

 

So the length will be 10 inches.