Question

A sailmaster decides to stitch a strip of binding right round the edge of a sail which is the shape of a right- angled triangle. The vertical and horizontal edges of the sail are 6.5m and 2.6m respectively. What length of binding is needed for the job?

Answer 1

First, we will use the Pythagorean theorem to compute the hypotenuse:

`\begin{gathered} h^2=(6.5m)^2+(2.6m)^2 \\ =42.25m^2+6.76m^2 \\ =49.01m^2. \end{gathered}`

Then:

`h\approx7.0m.`

Therefore, the sail master will need:

`6.5m+2.6m+7m=16.1m`

of blinding.

Answer: 16.1m