In Exercises, make the given changes in the indicated examples of this section and then so...

In Exercises, make the given changes in the indicated examples of this section and then solve the resulting problems.

In Example, change 8/5 to 7/4 and then solve.

EXAMPLE Applied proportion

The supports for a roof are triangular trusses for which the longest side is 8/5 as long as the shortest side for all of the trusses. If the shortest side of one of the trusses is 3.80 m, what is the length of the longest side of that truss?

If we label the longest side L, since the ratio of sides is 8/5, we have

Checking, we note that 6.08/3.80 = 1.6 and 8/5 = 1.6. The solution checks.