SOLUTION: How do you solve this... Hal is standing 40ft away from a 36ft tree. If the distance from the top of the tree to the top of Hal's head is 50ft, how tall is Hal? Thanks!!

Click here to see ALL problems on Pythagorean-theorem

Question 663980: How do you solve this...
Hal is standing 40ft away from a 36ft tree. If the distance from the top of the tree to the top of Hal's head is 50ft, how tall is Hal?

Thanks!!
Found 2 solutions by solver91311, jim_thompson5910:
Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

6 ft. The line from the top of Hal's head to a point Hal's height above the ground on the tree, the line from that point to the top of the tree, and the line from the top of the tree to Hal's head form a right triangle. The measure of one leg is 40 feet and the measure of the hypotenuse is 50 feet, so the measure of the other leg must be 30 feet (3-4-5 right triangle). The part of the tree from Hal's height up then measures 30 feet, but the tree is 36 feet tall, so Hal must be 36 minus 30 equals 6 feet tall.

John

My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it

Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Hint: Draw a picture (drawing helps if you have no idea where to start)

Then use this picture to form the equations

The first two equations are proportions. The third one uses the pythagorean theorem.

From there, solve for x in the first equation. Then solve for y in the second equation. After that, plug in what you solved for into x and y in the third equation. You'll be left with an equation in terms of just one variable h.

Solve for h to find your answer.

-------------------------------------------------------
Edit:

Using solver91311's method, you would have this drawing

and you can see that h = 6