Question

See your levels

A maple tree is 6 meters tall. Its shadow is 8 meters long. Close by, there is a streetlamp
that is 9 meters tall. How long is the streetlamp's shadow?
Write your answer as a whole number or a decimal. Do not round.
meters

Answer 1

12 meters

Explanation:

The assumption regarding shadow lengths is that they are proportional to height at any given place and time.

__

Here, the streetlamp is 9/6 = 3/2 times as tall as the tree, so we expect its shadow to be 3/2 times the length of the tree's shadow.

(3/2)(8 m) = 12 m

The streetlamp's shadow is 12 meters long.