Question

Nicole wants to know the height of a snow sculpture but it is too tall to measure. Nicole measured the shadow of the snow sculpture's highest point to be 20 feet long. At the same time of day Nicole's shadow was 80 inches long. If Nicole is 5 feet tall, what is the height of the snow sculpture? The height of the snow sculpture is ft.

Answer 1

The concept that can be used in order to measure the given item is the ratio and proportion. The ratio of Nicole's height to her shadow at that particular time should be equal to the ratio of the height of the tower to its shadow. If we let x be the height of the tower then, the equation would be,

       x/20 feet = 5 ft/80 inches

The units of the denominators should be equal to have a reasonable comparison, let us convert 80 inches to feet by dividing it by 12 to get the answer of 20/3 ft. 

           x/20 = 5/(20/3)

The value of x from the equation is equal to 15 ft. 

Answer: 15 ft.