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27 votes
Elena drops her pencil in her cup and notices that it just fits diagonally. The pencil is 17 cm long and the cup is 15 cm tall. What is the diameter of the cup?

Elena drops her pencil in her cup and notices that it just fits diagonally. The pencil-example-1
User Imad Ali
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1 Answer

12 votes
12 votes

Answer:

8

Explanation:

This question is simply the reverse of the Pythagorean theorem (the question is trying to confuse you by asking for the diameter when you could simply think of it as a right triangle). So all you would need to do is take C^2 (Pencil length^2) which is equal to 289, and minus it by B^2 (Cup height^2), which is equal to 225. This would then leave you with 64, which most would know of the top of there head to be the same as 8^2. Ergo, after square rooting 64, you find that the answer is 8

User Ajay Prajapati
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