SOLUTION: Please help w/ this question. Here is my question: A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use lengths of PVC plumbing pipe for the support

Question 134425: Please help w/ this question. Here is my question:
A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use lengths of PVC plumbing pipe for the supports on the teepee, and he wants the teepee to be 12 feet across and 8 feet tall. How long should the PVC plumbing pipe be?
I am hesitating in thinking it is simply A=L*W...is it that easy? Or is it 2L*2W, but that would be the permiter, right?
Thank you so much!
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If you look at a tepee from the side it looks like an isosceless triangle, right?
The base would be 12 feet and the height would be 8 feet.
The center upright of the tepee (8ft.) forms the height of the two congruent right triangles when you cut the isosceles triangle in two by the upright pole.
Now if you take the left or right half of that isoscelese triangle (a right triangle), the base would be 6 feet and the height would be 8 feet.
You would like to know the length of the sloping side which is the hypotenuse (c). Using the Pythagorean theorem, ,

The PVC plumbing pipes should be 10 feet long.
RELATED QUESTIONS
I know this is a large problem,but I have no clue how to get started on it. Can someone... (answered by richwmiller,solver91311)

3. A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his... (answered by richwmiller)

1. A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use... (answered by jim_thompson5910)

4. A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use... (answered by checkley71)

A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use... (answered by checkley77)

4. A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use... (answered by Earlsdon)

4. A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use... (answered by checkley77)

A customer wants to make a teepee in his backyard for his children. He plans to use... (answered by checkley79)