Pythagorean Theorem Word Problems

In the Old West, settlers made tents out of a piece of cloth thrown over a clothesline and then secured it to the ground with stakes forming an isosceles triangle. How long would the cloth have to be so that the opening of the tent was 6 feet high and 8 feet wide?

• 14.4 feet

• 7.2 feet

• 10 feet

• 20 feet

Your family wants to purchase a new laptop with a 17" widescreen. Since the 17 inches represents the diagonal measurement of the screen (upper corner to lower corner), you want to find out the actual dimensions of the laptop. When you measured the laptop at the store, the height was 10 inches, but you don't remember the width. Calculate the width of the laptop to the nearest tenth of an inch.

• 7 inches

• 10 inches

• 19.7 inches

• 13.7 inches

A soccer field is a rectangle 90 meters wide and 120 meters long. The coach asks players to run from one corner to the other corner diagonally across the field. How far do the players run?

• 105 meters

• 79.4 meters

• 210 meters

• 150 meters

The diagonal of a rectangle is 25 inches. The width is 15 inches. What is the area of the rectangle?

• 375 in²

• 70 in²

• 300 in²

• 20 in²

Two sides of a right triangle are 8 and 12. Find the missing side length if 8 and 12 are legs.

• 4.5

• 20

• 8.9

• 14.4

How far from the base of a house do you need to place a 15' ladder so that is exactly reaches the top of a 12' wall?

• 9 feet

• 19.2 feet

• 81 feet

• 369 feet

_{^{Find the missing side}}

• 9

• 41

• 6.4

• 6.2

Find the length of the missing side. 

• 25 cm

• 42 cm

• 52 cm

• 48 cm

A 25 foot ladder is leaning against a wall. The ladder is placed 10 feet away from the house. How far up the wall does the ladder reach?

Which diagram best represents the problem?

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The bottom of a 13-foot ladder is set into the ground 5 feet away from a wall. When the top of the ladder is leaned against the wall, what is the distance above the ground it will reach? Which equation could be used to solve the problem?