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Tree Height

 
 
  
Measuring tree height is easy as long as you have a ruler and a friend whose height you know.  Have your friend stand next to the tree.  Take your ruler and stand way back so your ruler is taller than the tree (like the picture).  Figure out how tall your friend is on the ruler and how tall the tree is on the ruler.  In the picture on the left, Peterson is 1/2 inch tall while the tree is 5 1/2 inch tall.  Since I know that Peterson is 5 1/2 feet tall, I can set up a proportion to find the height of the tree.  

.5 inch  5.5 inch     
5.5 feet      tree height  

tree height = 60.5 feet tall  
  

Another way to think about it is that if Peterson is 1/2 inch tall on the ruler, then the tree is 11 Petersons tall (5.5 inch/.5 inch = 11).  

11 Petersons  x  5.5 feet = 60.5 feet tall

Peterson is 5.5 ft tall, so tree is 60.5 ft tall.
 
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