at a certain time of day a 5 foot 11 inch woman casts a 3 foot 11 inch shadow. how tall is a nearby tree that casts a 14 foot 5 inch shadow at the same time of day?

Answer 1

5 feet, 11 inches = 71 inches
3 feet, 11 inches = 47 inches
14 feet, 5 inches = 173 inches

71/47 = x/173
Cross multiply and solve for x.

47x = 12,283

x = 261.34 inches = 21 feet, 9 inches

Answer 2

do this as similar triangles.

(3 11/12)/(5 11/12) = L/(14 5/12)

solve for L . It is probably easier to change to inches...

47/71=LinInches/173

solve for L, then convert back to feet inches. Go Metric, for the life of me, I cannot understand why we are still using feet, yards, inches.