Question

A building inspector needs to determine if two walls in a new house are built at right angles, as the buildingcode requires. He measure and find the following information. Wall 1 measures 12 feet, wall 2 measures 14feet, and the distance from the end of wall 1 to the end of wall 2 measures 18 feet. Do the walls meet at rightangles? Explain

Answer 1

A right triangle is made, where lengths of the walls are the legs and the distance from the end of wall 1 to the end of wall 2 is the hypotenuse.

If there is a right angle, the Pythagorean theorem must be satisfied.

12² + 14² = 18²

144 + 196 = 324

340 ≠ 324

Then, the walls don't meet at a right angle.