Questions: Question
A tree casts a 38 foot shadow at the same time a boy casts a 9 foot shadow. If the boy is 5.5 feet tall, how tall is the tree? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.
Transcript text: Question
A tree casts a 38 foot shadow at the same time a boy casts a 9 foot shadow. If the boy is 5.5 feet tall, how tall is the tree? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.
Solution
Solution Steps
Step 1: Establish the Proportionality
Given that the ratio of the height of an object to the length of its shadow is constant,
we can establish the following proportionality:
$$\frac{h_A}{s_A} = \frac{h_B}{s_B}$$
where:
\(h_A\) is the height of Object A, which is 5.5 units.
\(s_A\) is the shadow length of Object A, which is 9 units.
\(s_B\) is the shadow length of Object B, which is 38 units.
\(h_B\) is the height of Object B, which we want to find.
Step 2: Solve for the Unknown Height
Rearranging the equation to solve for \(h_B\), we get:
$$h_B = \frac{h_A \times s_B}{s_A}$$
Substituting the known values into the equation:
$$h_B =
rac{5.5 imes 38}{9}$$
$$h_B = 23.2$$ (rounded to 1 decimal places)
Final Answer:
The height of Object B is approximately 23.2 units.