Dominic is 72 inches tall and casts a 60 inch shadow. His son who is standing next to him casts a 50 and shadow. How tall is his son?

Step-by-step explanation:

It is a ratio. Set it up like fractions. Dom's height over his shadow and his son's height over his shadow. 72/60:x/50

We don't know the son's height, so we substitute with 'x'.

Now reduce the first fraction. 72/60

What number goes into both? A factor tree will show that 12 will go into both, so divide top and bottom by 12.

72 divided by 12 = 6 and 60 divided by 12 = 5. So, now our ratio looks like:

6/5 : x/50 Find out how many times 5 goes into fifty. Answer is 10. You have to multiply 5 by 10 to get to 50, so you have to multiply 6 by 10 to get to x.

6 time 10 = 60

Dominic's son is 60minches tall.