Question

A tree makes a shadow that is 14 ft long. Rachel is 6 ft tall. When she is standing near the tree, her shadow is 3.5 ft long. Which statement BEST explains why Rachel can use a proportion to estimate the length of the tree?

Answer 1

tree height / 14 = 6 / 3.5
tree height = (14 * 6) / 3.5

Answer 2

The best statement to calculate the height of the tree is to apply the Pythagorean theorem

Explanation:

Pythagoras' theorem reads as follows: a and b are the lengths of the legs of the right triangle and c is the length of the hypotenuse, therefore, the sum of the squares of the lengths of the legs is equal to the square of the length of the hypotenuse. Represented is the following:

a2+b2=c2

With this expression it is easy to calculate the height of the tree.