Question

On a sunny day, a classmate uses indirect measurement to find the height of a building. The building's shadow is 12 ft long and your classmate's shadow is 4 ft long. If your classmate is 5 ft tall, what is the height of the building?

Answer 1

15 feet tall.

Explanation:

To find the height of a building, we can set up a ratio as shown:

`(4)/(5)= (12)/(x)`

Cross multiply to begin solving for 'x':

4x = 60

Divide '4' by both sides:

`(4x)/(4) = (60)/(4)`

x = 15 ft.