A 50-foot-tallpuppet named Giant

Uncle is controlledby puppeteers usingcranes and pulleys.

MAMMOTHMARIONETI

Puppeteers guide a30-foot-tall marionettenamed Little Girl Giant-through the streets jof Liverpool, En 'last April.

Three giant puppetsmake the entirecity of Liverpool,England, their stage

Agiant girl and her giantdog lumbered throughdowntown Liverpool, this

past April. The figures were as tallas some of the buildings that linethe English city's streets.

Was this an invasion of colossalbeings from outer space? No, thegiants were marionettes! And theywere the stars of a performanceput on by Royal de Luxe, a theatercompany that has pioneered thisunique form of street theater.

Led by artistic director Jean-LucCourcoult, Royal de Luxe wasfounded in 1979 and is based inNantes, France. Over the years, thecompany has performed all aroundthe globe. Some of its mostpopular productions have featuredhuge marionettes like the ones thatappeared in Liverpool.

But why make these giant

o

This 9-foot-taU puppetnamed Xolo is LittleGirl Giant's pet dog.

marionettes at all? Courcoult was

inspired by a visit to Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil. There, he says, a mountain

range reminded him of the stomach

and feet of a giant.

To make the marionettes.

Royal de Luxe technicians must

take the measurements of normal-

size people and animals and

increase them to sizes appropriate

for giants. To find the right

measurements, the technicians

use scale, which is a ratio that

compares the size of one object

with the size of another.

Read about using scale (right).

Then use the information to answer

the questions. —BiLL WISE

SIZE OF REAL OBJECT

Scale is a ratio. You can usescale to find the size of a modelor a real object—depending onwhat information you are given.You do this by writing aproportion, or two equal ratios.

EXAMPLE: A giant marionetteof an adult elephant is 40 feettall. The real adult elephant itis based on is 10 feet tall. Thescale is ̂ , or T-

That scale can be used todetermine the size of a baby-elephant marionette based ona real baby elephant that is3 feet tall.

4 _ >[1 " 3

Cross multiply and solve for x.

lx = 4 X 3x = 12

The baby elephant marionette

will be 12 feet tall.

I Say Royal de Luxe is making a6-foot-tall marionette of a cat.

A real cat is about l i feet tall.What scale is Royal de Luxe using?Put your answer in simplest form.

12 Say Royal de Luxe is making

a gigantic horse marionettewith a scale of T. If a real horseis 6 feet tall, how many feet tallwould the marionette be?

r

3The giant dog that Royalde Luxe used in Liverpool

was 9 feet tall. If Royal de Luxeused a scale of j , how tall wasthe real dog on which they basedthe marionette?

4The giant man that Royal deLuxe used in the performance

was 50 feet tall. If the man theybased the marionette on was 6 feettall, what was the scale?

J5The giant girl that Royal de

Luxe used in the performancewas 30 feet tall. If Royal de Luxe useda scale of 7, how tall was the realgirl the marionette was based on?

5 MOREQUESTIONS

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