SOLUTION: A bird sits 14 ft above ground while a cat sits on a cement ledge 1 ft above ground that's directly across from the bird 1008 inches(84 ft.) away. You see the bird fly down to try

Click here to see ALL problems on Triangles

Question 785553: A bird sits 14 ft above ground while a cat sits on a cement ledge 1 ft above ground that's directly across from the bird 1008 inches(84 ft.) away. You see the bird fly down to try to peck the cat on the head. The bird misses and flies back to its resting point on the tree. The cat climbs off his ledge, run across the street, and climb up the tree to try to catch the bird. The bird will wait until the cat reaches the limb then fly off. The cat returns to his place, so does the bird. The cycle repeats until they both get tired.
WHAT IS THE SHORTEST DISTANCE THE CAT HAS TO WALK/RUN TO GET TO THE BIRD?

Answer by KMST(5328) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The sketch below shows the starting situation as I interpret it. (All numbers and represent distances in feet).
The blue and green lines are not concrete objects, but imaginary lines drawn in the air.
Blue line CB is the line of sight from cat to bird (I am siding with a fellow mammal). The cat somehow knows that distance to be 84 feet.
Green line CA is a horizontal imaginary line going from the cat's perch to a point 1 foot above the ground on the trunk of the bird's tree.
The horizontal black line at the bottom represents the perfectly horizontal, flat ground.
The long vertical line represents the tree.
We realize that triangle ABC is a right triangle with the right angle at A.
As I interpret it, the problem asks for the distance from point C to the ground, then along the ground to the foot of the tree, and finally 14 feet up the tree to the bird.
All we have to do is invoke Pythagoras to find .

(rounded)
So the distance (in feet) the cat has to travel to get to the bird is