November 2010
MATHCOUNTS Newsletter Poster Problem
George Washington was 6’ 2” tall, and the height of the Washington Monument is about 555’ 5”. If you
were to stack George Washington one on top of the other (as shown) until the stack first exceeded the
top of the Washington Monument, by how many inches would the top-most Washington exceed the
height of the monument?
Solution
George Washington’s height was six feet, two inches which is equivalent to 74 inches. The height of the
Washington Monument is 555’ 5” which equals 6665 inches. To determine how many George
Washingtons it takes to reach the top of the monument we divide 6665/74 and see that it takes 90.06 ≈
91. Stacked one on top of the other, 91 George Washingtons would reach a height of 6734 inches. This
exceeds the height of the monument by 6734 − 6665 = 69 inches.
Although the height of the Washington Monument is, at times, reported as 555.555 feet, according to
the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the official published height is 555 feet
5 1/8 inches tall (http://www.nps.gov/wamo/faqs.htm). For the purposes of the MATHCOUNTS
November 2010 Newsletter which reads, ‘the height of the Washington Monument is about 555’ 5”’,
the official height has been rounded to the nearest inch.