Question

Mr.simpson is constructing a swing set for his children. He measures that the patform will be 7 feet high and would like to attach an 11-feet slide. How many feet away from the base will it be set? (Round to the nearest tenth.)

Answer 1

8.5 ft

Explanation:

We assume that Mr. Simpson can model his construction using a right triangle with leg 7 ft and hypotenuse 11 ft, as shown in the attachment. Then the other leg can be found using the Pythagorean theorem.

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a² +b² = c²

x² +7² = 11²

x² = 121 -49 = 72

x = √72 = 6√2 ≈ 8.485 . . . . feet

The slide will be set about 8.5 feet away from the base.