miguel is 5ft 10 inches tall On a sunny day he casts a shadow of 4ft 2 inches long. At the same time, a nearby electric tower casts a shadow 8ft 9 inches long. How tall is the tower?
Please help me set up the equation. Do i use is actual height or his shadow?
use a simple ratio
height of man /shadow of man = height of tower/shadow of tower.
notice I set up "like things" in the same pattern
(5 10/12) / (4 2/12) = height of tower/(8 9/12)
(35/6) / (25/6) = tower/(35/4)
tower = (35/4)(35/6) / (25/6)
= 49/4 inches or 12 ft 3 inches
I am totally confused by the way you did this. It totally lost me.
Can you please tell me in a different way?
Where did you get the 12 from in your fractions?
How many inches are in one foot?
To set up the equation, you need to use Miguel's shadow length and the corresponding shadow length of the electric tower. Since we want to find the height of the tower, we will use Miguel's actual height and his shadow length.
Let's let "M" represent Miguel's height and "MS" represent Miguel's shadow length. Similarly, let "T" represent the height of the tower and "TS" represent the tower's shadow length.
We know that Miguel is 5 feet 10 inches tall and his shadow is 4 feet 2 inches long. Therefore, we can write this as an equation:
M + MS = 5ft 10in + 4ft 2in
Now, the height of the tower is unknown, but we know the tower's shadow length is 8 feet 9 inches. Hence, we can express it as:
T + TS = 8ft 9in
Since we want to find the height of the tower, let's solve the second equation for T:
T = 8ft 9in - TS
Now that we have expressions for both Miguel's height and the height of the tower, we can substitute them into their respective equations to get the final equation.