Problema Solution
Oscar's dog house is shaped like a triangle tent. The slanted sides are both 5 feet long and the bottom of the house is 6 feet across. What is the height of his dog house, in feet, at its tallest point? (Draw and think)
Answer provided by our tutors
make a good drawing and notice the isosceles triangle that the slated sides and the bottom of the house make
let
b = 5 ft the slanted sides
a = 6 ft the bottom
h = ? the height that we need to find and h>0
using the Pythagorean Theorem we can write
h^2 = b^2 - (a/2)^2
h^2 = 5^2 - (6/2)^2
h^2 = 25 - 9
h^2 = 16
h = 4 ft
the height of the dog house is 4 ft.