CK12 - Geometry

The wordingin this problemis complicated,but you only needto noticea few things.You can tell in the

picturethat this trianglehas anglesof , , and (Thisassumesthat the flagpoleis perpendicular
to the ground,but that is a safe assumption).The heightof the flagpoleis the longerleg in the triangle,so
use the specialright triangleratiosto find the lengthof the hypotenuse.

The longerleg is the productof the shorterleg and. The lengthof the shorterleg is givenas meters,

so the heightof the flagpoleis m.

The lengthof the hypotenuseis the hypotenuseof a triangle.It will alwaysbe twicethe

lengthof the shorterleg, so it will equal , or meters.

Example 7

Antoniobuilt a squarepatioin his backyard.

He wantsto makea waterpipe for flowersthat goesfrom one cornerto another, diagonally. How long will
that pipe be?

The first step in a wordproblemof this natureis to add importantinformationto the drawing.Becausethe
problemasks you to find the lengthfrom one cornerto another, you shoulddrawthat segmentin.

Onceyou drawthe diagonalpath,you can see how triangleshelp answerthis question.Becauseboth legs

of the trianglehavethe samemeasurement( feet),this is an isoscelesright triangle.The anglesin an

isoscelesright triangleare , , and.

In an isoscelesright triangle,the hypotenuseis alwaysequalto the productof the lengthof one leg and

. So, the lengthof Antonio’s waterpipe will be the productof and , or