Question

A city planner wants to build a bridge across a lake in the park. To find the length of the bridge, he makes a right triangle with one leg and the hypotenuse on land and the bridge as the other leg. The length of the hypotenuse is 340 feet and the other leg is 160 feet. Find the length of the bridge

Answer 1

The length of the bridge is 300 feet.

Explanation:

Let A represent the length of one leg.

Let B represent the length of the other leg (i.e length of the bridge)

Let C represent the length of the Hypothenus.

From the question given above, the following data were obtained:

Length of Hypothenus (C) = 340 feet.

Length of one leg (A) = 160 feet.

Length of the bridge (B) =.?

The length of the bridge can be obtained by using the pythagoras theory as illustrated below:

C² = A² + B²

340² = 160² + B²

115600 = 25600 + B²

Collect like terms

115600 – 25600 = B²

90000 = B²

Take the square root of both side

B = √90000

B = 300 feet

Therefore, the length of the bridge is 300 feet