Question

Answer each question and round your answer to the nearest tenth

A 6.5 ft tall car standing next an adult elephant casts a 33.2 ft shadow. If the adult elephant casts a shadow that is 51.5 ft long then how tall is it?

Answer 1

Using the concept of similarity of triangles, we can set up the following proportion:

(Height of elephant) / (Length of shadow of car) = (Height of car) / (Length of shadow of elephant)

Let's assign variables to the unknowns:
Let the height of the elephant be h.
Given:
Height of car = 6.5 ft.
Shadow of car = 33.2 ft.
Shadow of elephant = 51.5 ft.

Using the proportion:
h / 33.2 = 6.5 / 51.5

Cross-multiplying:
h * 51.5 = 6.5 * 33.2

Simplifying:
h = (6.5 * 33.2) / 51.5

Calculating:
h ≈ 4.184 ft (rounded to the nearest tenth)

Therefore, the height of the elephant is approximately 4.2 ft.