Can i Get help on this thanks

Question

A water tower is  feet tall and casts a shadow  feet long, while a child casts a shadow  feet long. How tall is the child?

Answer 1

So this is basically a proportion. A proportion says that two ratios (or fractions) are equal. Example: 1/2 = 2/4.

In this case, you have 3 out of the 4 numbers so you just need to find x, which is the last number. Now, how you set up the proportion is important. You want to put the same type of info on top, and the same type of info on the bottom.

For example: height of person or object = height of person or object

shadow of person or object shadow of person or object

With that in mind, you can plug in the info you know. Since you want the height of the child, that is what x is.

48 ft tall = x

72 ft shadow 6 ft shadow

With that setup, now you can solve it. To solve a proportion, you cross multiply and divide.

Ex: 48*6= 72x

Now you have: 288=72x

To get x by itself, you divide. And whatever you do to one side, you must do to the other.

So we get: 288 divided by 72 = x

And x is the height of the child, which is 4.