Austin, Texas has a statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn that is 12 ft tall. It casts an 8 ft shadow. Doug stops to admire the statue. Doug’s shadow is 3.5 ft. How tall is Doug?

Explanation

The proportion of the height of an object versus the length of its shadows will be in the same proportion as those of another object, if both objects being compared are located at approximately the same location and the measurements of the shadows are taken at the same time of day. Thus, the proportion of the statue’s actual height over its shadow is equal to the proportion of Doug’s height over his own shadow.
If we let “h” be Doug’s height, the equation will be:
12/8 = h/3.5
H = (12)(3.5)/8 = 5.25 feet or \(5 \frac{1}{4}\) feet

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