A persons foot length is 20.0 cm. If the Height : Foot length ratio is 5.8, what is the persons height?
It’s always a good idea to list your important information first: Foot length: 20.0cm Height to Foot length Ratio: 5.8 Height of the person: H (H is what we are looking for) (This is called our variable) __H__ = __H__ F F __H__ can be expressed as a ratio. We have that ratio, it’s 5.8! F so we can now plug in our numbers: 5.8 = __H__ 20.0cm We can now set up a proportion. We can do this by taking 5.8 and placing it over 1 so that one side of the equal sign resembles the other. __5.8__ = __H__ 1 20.0cm Now we can cross multiply: 5.8 x 20.0cm = 1 x H 116.0 cm = H Therefore, the height of the person could very well be 116.0 cm.
