A telephone booth that is 8 ft tall casts a shadow that is 4 ft long. Find the height of a lawn ornament that cast a 2 ft shadow.
We can use the concept of similar triangles to solve this problem. Similar triangles have the same shape but different sizes.
Let's represent the height of the telephone booth as h, and the length of its shadow as s. We know that h = 8 ft and s = 4 ft.
Similarly, let's represent the height of the lawn ornament as h' and the length of its shadow as s'. We want to find h' when s' = 2 ft.
Since the triangles formed by the telephone booth and its shadow, and the lawn ornament and its shadow are similar, we can set up the following proportion:
h / s = h' / s'
Plugging in the known values, we have:
8 / 4 = h' / 2
Simplifying the proportion, we get:
2 = h' / 2
Multiplying both sides by 2, we find:
4 = h'
Therefore, the height of the lawn ornament is 4 ft.