Question 220302: On a sunny day, a building and its shadow form the sides of a right triangle. If the hypotenuse is 32 m long and the shadow is 24 m, how tall is the building?
Please help me on this.
Answer by likaaka(51)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! You need to use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve since we are given a right triangle and the length of the hypotenuse and a side.
a^2 + b^2 = c^2, where c is the length of the hypotenuse and a & b are the lengths of the other two sides
Now plug in what is given
24^2 + b^2 = 32^2, perform square operation
576 + b^2 = 1024, subtract 576 from both sides
b^2 = 448, square root both sides
b = + or - 21.1660.... ***it's a real long decimal so plug into calculator if you need more places
Since we are dealing with a height, it can't be negative so the buildings is 21.1660...meters tall
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