Question

On the school playground, the slide is 12 feet due west of the tire swing and 16 feet due south of the monkey bars. What is the distance between the tire swing and the monkey bars?

Answer 1

The distance between the tire swing and the monkey bars is 20 feet.

Explanation:

We have drawn the diagram four reference.

Given:

the slide is 12 feet due west of the tire swing

So according the diagram;

TS = 12 feet

Also Given:

slide is 16 feet due south of the monkey bars.

So according the diagram;

MS = 16 feet

We need to find the distance between the tire swing and the monkey bars.

according to diagram we need to find the MT.

Solution:

assuming it to be right angle triangle with right angle at S.

we have;

In Δ MTS;

`\angle S = 90\°`

TS = 12 feet

MS = 16 feet

Now applying Pythagoras theorem which states that;

"Sum of the square of the two side of the triangle is equal to square of the hypotenuse."

framing in equation form we get;

`MT^2=TS^2+MS^2`

Substituting the values we get;

`MT^2= 12^2+16^2= 144+256 =400`

Taking square root on both side we get;

`√(MT^2)=√(400) \\ \\MT =20\ ft`

Hence the distance between the tire swing and the monkey bars is 20 feet.