Question

A person that is 1.6 m tall casts a 4 m shadow. At the same time, a nearby tree casts a 12 m shadow. What is the height of the tree to the nearest tenth of a metre?

Answer 1

1.6:4=n:12 or 1.6/4=n/12
(12*1.6)/4=n, so what is n?

Answer 2

4.8 m.

Answer 3

Drawing a picture for this problem creates two similar triangles, you simply have to use the given ratio from the first triangle to find the height of the tree, so 1.6/4=x/12. Cross-multiplying gives us (1.6)(12)=4X, Therefore, x=((1.6)(12))/4