Question

The ratio of the length of an airplane wing to its width is 9 to 1. If the length of a wing is 43.9 metérs, how wide must it be? The airplane wing must be ____ meters wide. (Round to the nearest hundredth.)

Answer 1

To compute the width of the wing, we can use the next proportion

`\frac{9\text{ meters long}}{43.9\text{ meters long}}=\frac{1\text{ meter wide}}{x\text{ meters wide}}`

Solving for x,

`\begin{gathered} 9\cdot x=1\cdot43.9 \\ x=(43.9)/(9) \\ x=4.88 \end{gathered}`

The airplane wing must be 4.88 meters wide.