A lookout tower is 16 meters tall. Its shadow is 12 meters long. Close by, there is a wooden column that is 4 meters tall. How long is the wooden column's shadow?

Write your answer as a whole number or a decimal. Do not round.

3 metres

Step-by-step explanation:

If we draw this out, we'll see that there are actually two similar right triangles (see attachment), which means that we can set up a proportion.

The height of the lookout tower corresponds to the height of the wooden column, while the shadow of the lookout tower corresponds to the shadow of the wooden column. We can then write:

(height of lookout tower) / (shadow of tower) = (height of column) / (shadow of column)

16 / 12 = 4 / x , where x is the shadow / unknown we want to find

Cross-multiply:

16x = 48

x = 3

The answer is thus 3 metres.