Question

Quincy is trying to estimate the height of a tree in his backyard. He measures the tree’s shadow as 12 ft. He stands near the tree and measures his own shadow as 3 ft. Quincy knows that he is about 5 ft tall. He estimates the height of the tree by following these steps

Answer 1

The tree is 20 ft tall.

Explanation:

We can use ratio's to solve this problem. Take the height of the object over the shadow length.

5 ft x ft

----------- = ----------------

3ft 12 ft

Using cross products

5*12 = 3*x

60 = 3x

Divide by 3 on each side

60/3 = 3x/3

20 =x

The tree is 20 ft tall.