Can someone figure this out ? two prisms are similar the larger prism has a height of 18 m and a base edge length of 20m the smaller prism has a height of 4.5m what is the base edge length of the smaller prism.

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Answer 1 · 2018-03-20T16:31:00

See a solution process below:

First, let's call the base edge we are looking fo:r #b#

We can write the relationship between the two prisms as:

#(20"m")/(18"m") = b/(4.5"m")#

Now, multiply each side of the equation by #color(red)(4.5"m")# to solve for #b# while keeping the equation balanced:

#color(red)(4.5"m") xx (20"m")/(18"m") = color(red)(4.5"m") xx b/(4.5"m")#

#(90"m"^2)/(18"m") = cancel(color(red)(4.5"m")) xx b/color(red)(cancel(color(black)(4.5"m")))#

#5"m" = b#

#b = 5"m"#

The base of the smaller prism is 5 meters