Lets draw a picture of the penny-farthing bicycle:
where x is the diameter of the back wheel. Since the ratio is 3 to 1, we have
[tex]\frac{x}{48}=\frac{1}{3}[/tex]By moving 48 to the right hand side, we have
[tex]\begin{gathered} x=\frac{1}{3}\times48 \\ x=\frac{48}{3} \\ x=16 \end{gathered}[/tex]This means that the diameter of the back wheel is 16 inches. Now, the circunference formula is
[tex]C=\pi\cdot d[/tex]where d is the diameter. Then, the circunference of the back wheel is
[tex]\begin{gathered} C=3.14\times16 \\ C=50.24\text{ in} \end{gathered}[/tex]What is the circumference of the back wheel? 50.24 inches
