Question

You are standing beside the Colorado River, 400 feet from the base of Hoover Dam. using an electrical distance measuring device, you find a distance to the top of the dam to be 965 feet. Find the height of the dam

Answer 1

The shape formed between you and the dam with those measurements makes a triangle. The base is 400ft, and the hypotonuse is 965ft.
If you do
`965^(2)` -
`400^(2)` and root what you get, you get the answer of 878.1941ft

Answer 2

878.1941ft

Explanation:

When you are standing in that position, you are making a 90º triangle with the hipotenuse of the trangle being 965 feet, and the base of the triangle would be 400 feet.

The laws of triangles dictate that the sum of both squared sides equals the hiponetnuse squared. The formula would be like this

`965^(2) = 400^(2) +Height^(2)`

If you clear the height you´d get:

`Height^(2) =900^(2)- 400^(2)`

You clear the height and it will end up like this:

Height=
`\sqrt{900^(2)- 400^(2)`

Height= 878.19 feet.