Question

Stonehenge II in Hunt, Texas, is a scale model of the ancient construction in Wiltshire, England. The scale of the model to the original is 3 to 5. The Altar Stone of the original construction is 4.9 meters tall. Write and solve a proportion to find the height of the model of the Altar Stone.

Answer 1

A scale factor is the ratio of two similar geometric figures of their corresponding sides. The scale factor is calculated by locating the corresponding sides on each figure. For this problem, we need to calculate the scale factor of the figure given. We do as follows:

k = model size / original size
k = 3/5

So, to determine the height of the model, we use the k and do as follows:

k = height of the model / height of the original construction
3/5 = height of the model / 4.9 meters
height of the model = 2.94 meters

Therefore, the height of the model would be about 2.94 meters.