Question 1163386: A young dad, who was a star football player in college, set up a miniature football field for his five-year-old young daughter, who was already displaying an unusual talent for place-kicking. At each end of the mini-field, he set up goal posts so she could practice kicking extra points and field goals. He was very careful to ensure the goalposts were each straight up and down and that the crossbars were level. On each set, the crossbar was six feet long, and a string from the top of each goalpost to the midpoint between them on the ground measured five feet.
How tall were the goalposts? How do you know this to be true?
Answer by greenestamps(13203)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The center of each crossbar is 3 feet from each goalpost (half the length of the crossbar).
Imagine a third post midway between the two goal posts. It of course will have the same height as the two goalposts.
That center post, the string from the top of a goalpost to the base of the center post, and half the crossbar form and right triangle with hypotenuse 5 feet and one leg 3 feet. By the Pythagorean Theorem, the other leg -- the height of each post -- is 4 feet.
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