Faye wants to know how tall her school building is. On a sunny day, she measures the shadow of the building to be 6 feet. At the same time, she measures the shadow cast by a 5 foot statue to be 2 feet. How tall is her school building?

I don't understand how to solve it.

5/2 = h/6

multiply both sides by 6
15 = h

(doubtful by the way, pretty low for a school building)

What do you mean multiply both sides? Do you mean multiply 15 by 6 and multiply 6 by 6??

no, multiply h/6 by 6 which yields h

5/2 * 6 = 15
h/6 * 6 = h
so
h = 15

To solve this problem, we can use the concept of similar triangles. Similar triangles have the same shape but may have different sizes. The corresponding sides of similar triangles are proportional.

In this case, we can assume that the height of the school building is represented by 'x' feet. The height of the statue is given as 5 feet. The lengths of the shadows are also given - the shadow of the building is 6 feet, and the shadow of the statue is 2 feet.

By using the concept of similar triangles, we can set up the following proportion:

Height of building / Shadow of building = Height of statue / Shadow of statue

Substituting the given values:

x / 6 = 5 / 2

To solve for 'x', we can cross-multiply and then divide:

2x = 6 * 5
2x = 30

Dividing both sides by 2:

x = 30 / 2
x = 15

Therefore, her school building is 15 feet tall.