Pythagorean theorem

1. Becky is mountain climbing with Terrell and just climbed a 16-meter vertical rock face. Terrell
is standing at the bottom of the cliff, looking up at Becky. If Terrell is 20 meters away from
becky, how far away from the cliff is Terrell standing?

2. Three baseball players are playing catch. Josie is directly south of Ning and directly west of
Eddie. Josie and Eddie are 8 meters apart and Eddie and Ning are 10 meters apart. How far
apart are Josie and Ning?

3. A mouse has made holes in opposite corners of a rectangular kitchen. The width of the
kitchen is 4 meters and the distance between the mouses holes is 5 meters. What is the
length of the kitchen?

4. Ron looks around at an assembly. He notices his younger sister to his right and his older
brother 12 meters ahead of him. If Rons brother and sister are 15 meters apart, how far
apart are Ron and his younger sister?

5. Diego takes a sheet of paper and cuts from one corner to the opposite corner, making two
triangles. If the piece of paper is 5 inches long and 12 inches wide, how long is the diagonal
cut that Diego made?

6. Brad is in a hot air balloon that has just taken off and is now floating 8 meters above its
launching point. Malia is standing on the ground, 15 meters away from the launching point.
How far apart are Brad and Malia?

7. In Middletown, the library is 12 kilometers due south of the courthouse and 16 kilometers
due west of the community swimming pool. What is the distance between the courthouse
and the community swimming pool?

8. Lacey is replacing a door that is 84 inches tall and measures 91 inches across the diagonal.
What is the width of the door?

9. To wash a window that is 4 meters off the ground, Ellie leans a 5-meter ladder against the
side of the building. To reach the window, how far away from the building should Ellie place
the base of the ladder?

10. To get to her parents' house, Ashley would have to drive due north 57 miles. To get to her
grandparents' house, she would have to drive due east 76 miles. What is the straight-line
distance between the parents' and grandparents' houses?

11. Lexington Street and Norwood Avenue intersect. If the diagonal distance across the
intersection is 58 feet and Lexington Street is 40 feet wide, how wide is Norwood Avenue?

12. Julie is building a wheelchair ramp onto her porch. If the porch is 36 centimeters high and
Julie wants the ramp to start 77 centimeters from the porch, how long does the ramp need
to be?

13. Russell ran from one corner of a field to the opposite corner, a distance of 89 meters. Then
he ran along its length, a distance of 80 meters. How wide is the field?

14. To get from point A to point B you must avoid walking through a pond. To avoid the pond,
you must walk 34 meters south and 41 meters east. To the nearest meter, how many
meters would be saved if it were possible to walk through the pond?

15. Seth made a small rectangular table for his workroom. The sides of the table are 36" and
18". If the diagonal of the table measures 43", is the table square? A table which is
"square" has right angles at the corners.

16. Oscar's dog house is shaped like a tent. The slanted sides are both 5 feet long and the
bottom of the house is 6 feet across. What is the height of his dog house, in feet, at its
tallest point?

17. Find the value of x in these diagram.

a.

b.

c.

d.

18. Find the perimeter of triangle ABC given that AC = 13, CD = 12 and
BD = 16.

19. Find the perimeter of trapezium WXYZ if WX = 7 cm, YZ = 13 cm,

ZW = 8 cm.

20. Find the area of an equilateral triangle with 2 cm sides.

21. A 25 m. ladder leans against a vertical wall. The foot of the ladder is 20 m from the base of
the wall. If the foot is moved 13 m closer to the wall, how far does the top of the ladder
moved up the wall?

22. A pencil box, in the shape of a rectangular prism, measures 16 cm by 12 cm by 8 cm. Find
the length of the longest pencil that would fit inside the box.

23. The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 1 inch longer than the longer leg. The shorter leg is 7
inches shorter than the longer leg. Find the length of the hypotenuse.

24. Carrie works dues south of her apartment. Her friend, Sarah, works due to east of the
apartment. They leave for work at the same time. By the time Carrie is 5 miles from their
apartment, the distance between them is 1 miles more than Sarahs distance from the
apartment. How far from the apartment is Sarah?

25. A rake is leaning against a wall. The top of the rake hits the wall 45 inches above the
ground, and the bottom of the rake is 24 inches away from the wall. How long is the rake?

26. From a train station, one train heads north, and another heads east. Some time later, the
northbound train has traveled 25 kilometers, and the eastbound train has traveled 60
kilometers. How far apart are the two trains, measured in a straight line?

27. Tracy's house is due west of Oakdale and due south of Lancaster. Oakdale is 20 miles from
Tracy's house and 29 miles from Lancaster. How far is Lancaster from Tracy's house,
measured in a straight line?

28. An oak tree is 8 meters tall and a bird is standing on the ground 6 meters from the tree. If
the bird flies directly to the top of the tree, how far will it fly?

29. A farmer is tilling his rectangular field. The length of the field is 65 yards and distance
between opposite corners is 97 yards. How wide is the farmer's field?

30. The foot of a ladder is 10 feet from the wall. The ladderis 2 feet longer than the height that
it reaches on the wall. What is the length of the ladder?

31. What is x?

32. What is the length of AC?

33. The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 3 less than twice the length of the shorter leg. Find the
length of the hypotenuse if the longer leg is 12 centimeters.

34. Town B is 8 miles north and 17 miles west of town A. How far are the two towns apart?

35. What is the length of the diagonal of a rectangle of length 3 and width 2?

36. A tree is supported by a wire anchored in the ground 9 feet from its base. The wire is 1 foot
longer than the height that it reaches on the tree. Find the length of the wire.

37. The length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is 3 inches more than twice the length of the
shorter leg. The longer leg is 7 inches longer than the shorter leg. Find the length of the
longer leg.

38. Calculate the length of diagonal of a square with sides of length 6 cm.

39. The diagram shows a wooden frame that is to be part of the roof of a house:
a. Find PQ.
b. Find QS.
c. Calculate the total length of wood needed to make the frame.

40. Mark travels due north from home. His wife Kay works due west. They leave for work at the
same time. By the time Mark is 10 miles from home, the distance between them is 2 miles
more than Kays distance from home. How far from home is Kay?

41. Joe cuts out a piece of paper in the shape of a right triangle. The longer leg of the triangle is
20 inches longer than twice the length of the shorter leg. The hypotenuse is 30 inches longer
than twice the length of the shorter leg. What is the length of the longer leg?

42. The foot of an extension ladder is 15 feet from the wall. The ladder is 7 feet less than three
times longer than the height that it reaches on the wall. What is the length of the ladder?

43. A 3m ladder stands on horizontal ground and reaches 2.8 m up a vertical wall. How far is the
foot of the ladder from the base of the wall?

44. An isosceles triangle has a base of length 4 cm and perpendicular height 8 cm. Calculate the
perimeter of the triangle.

45. One end of a rope is tied to the top of a vertical flagpole of height 5.2 m. When the rope is
pulled tight, the other end is on the ground 3.8 m from the base of the flagpole. Calculate
the length of the rope, giving your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

46. A rectangular lawn is 12.5 m long and 8 m wide. Matthew walks diagonally across the lawn
from one corner to the other. He returns to the first corner by walking round the edge of the
lawn. How much further does he walk on his return journey?

47. Calculate the perpendicular height of an equilateral triangle with sides of length 5 cm.

48. The width of a rectangle is 5 cm and the length of its diagonal is 13 cm.
a. How long is the other side of the rectangle?
b. What is the area of the rectangle?

49. A rectangular field is 125 yards long and the length of one diagonal of the field is 150 yards.
What is the width of the field?

50. A guy rope on a tent is 1.5 m long. One end is fixed to the top of a vertical pole and the
other is pegged to the ground. If the pole is 12 m high, how far is the pegged end of the
rope from the base of the flagpole?