Answers:
- Scale factor = 5/3 (which is approximately equal to 1.67)
- x = 10
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Work Shown:
To find the scale factor, we divide a side of triangle MNO over a corresponding side of triangle FGH. We can only pick the horizontal bottom sides since we don't know what x is yet.
scale factor = ON/HG = 15/9 = (5*3)/(3*3) = 5/3
In decimal form, this is approximately 5/3 = 1.67; however, I find it's better to stick with the fraction since it's exact.
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Let's solve for x
One way to do so is to follow these steps
(FG)/(MN) = (HG)/(ON)
6/x = 9/15
6*15 = x*9 ..... cross multiply
90 = 9x
9x = 90
x = 90/9
x = 10
Or we could solve like this
(FG)/(HG) = (MN)/(ON)
6/9 = x/15
6*15 = 9x
90 = 9x
9x = 90
x = 90/9
x = 10
We end up with the same result because we got to 90 = 9x after cross multiplying, which was found in the previous set of steps as well. There are other ways to solve using a proportion. But they should all lead to x = 10.
Note how,
MN/FG = 10/6 = (5*2)/(3*2) = 5/3
which was the scale factor we found earlier
