Final answer:
The approximate height of the statue is found to be 88 feet using proportions based on the student's and statue's arm lengths. This approximation is only 3 inches taller than the statue's actual height of 87 feet, 9 inches, showcasing a very accurate estimate.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student wants to find the height of a statue using a similar triangles approach, which falls under the subject of Mathematics. To calculate the approximate height of the statue, we can use the lengths of comparable body parts and their proportions. Since the student's right arm is 2 feet long and their height is 5 ⅓ feet (which is 5.333 feet), we set up a ratio comparing the lengths of the right arms to find the height of the statue:
Statue's height / Student's height = Statue's arm length / Student's arm length
Statue's height / 5.333 feet = 33 feet / 2 feet
Statue's height = (33 feet / 2 feet) × 5.333 feet
Statue's height = 16.5 × 5.333 feet
Statue's height = 88 feet
We found that the approximate height of the statue is 88 feet. Comparing this to the statue's actual height of 87 feet, 9 inches (87.75 feet), we can determine how close the approximation is to the actual height. By subtracting the approximate height from the actual height, we find the difference:
Actual height - Approximate height = 87.75 feet - 88 feet = -0.25 feet (or -3 inches)
This shows that the approximation is 3 inches taller than the actual height of the statue.