Question

Brenda is fishing from a small boat. Her fishing hook is 12 feet below her, and a fish is swimming at the same depth as the hook, 16 feet away. How far away is Brenda from the fish?

Answer 1

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve this problem. Let's call the distance Brenda is away from the fish "x". Then, we have a right triangle with legs of length 12 and x, and a hypotenuse of length 16. So:

x^2 + 12^2 = 16^2

Simplifying:

x^2 + 144 = 256

x^2 = 112

Taking the square root of both sides:

x ≈ 10.6 feet

Therefore, Brenda is approximately 10.6 feet away from the fish.