Question

Dwayne plans to add a railing parallel to a flight of stairs that goes down to the basement in his house. The stairs have the dimensions shown in the sketch. Landing 7.5 in 9.5 in 7.5 95 9.5 What will be the length of the railing from Point A to Point B? Show or explain how you got your answer.

Answer 1

121 inches

Explanation:

See the attached diagram. We can form a right triangle as shown. The base and sides of the right triangle can be computed by adding the 10 steps of horizonal distance 9.5" (95" for the base) and the 10 vertical distances of 7.5" (75" total) for the height. Use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the hypotenuse, which will be the same as the railing length.