Pythagorean Theory Word Problems

The slide at the playground has a height of 6 feet. The base of the slide measured on the ground is 8 feet. What is the length of the slide?

• 8 feet

• 5.29 feet

• 10 feet

• 14 feet

The bottom of a 13-foot straight ladder is set into the ground 5 feet away from a wall. When the top of the ladder is leaned against the wall, what is the distance above the ground it will reach?

• 12 feet

• 13.9 feet

In the Old West, settlers made tents out of a piece of cloth thrown over a clothesline and then secured it to the ground with stakes forming an isosceles triangle. How long would the cloth have to be so that the opening of the tent was 6 feet high and 8 feet wide?

• 14.4 feet

• 7.2 feet

• 10 feet

• 20 feet

A baseball "diamond" is actually a square with sides of 90 feet. If a runner tries to steal second base, how far must the catcher, at home plate, throw to get the runner "out"? (Distance across the diagonal)

• 180 feet

• 90 feet

• 13.4 feet

• 127.3 feet

Your family wants to purchase a new laptop with a 17" widescreen. Since the 17 inches represents the diagonal measurement of the screen (upper corner to lower corner), you want to find out the actual dimensions of the laptop. When you measured the laptop at the store, the height was 10 inches, but you don't remember the width. Calculate the width of the laptop to the nearest tenth of an inch.

• 7 inches

• 10 inches

• 19.7 inches

• 13.7 inches

How far from the base of a house do you need to place a 15' ladder so that is exactly reaches the top of a 12' wall?

• 9 feet

• 19.2 feet

• 81 feet

• 369 feet

Town A is 90 miles from Town B, and 18 miles from Town C. Town A, B, and C are forming a right triangle at A. A road connects towns B and C directly. Find the length of this road.

• 108 miles

• 91.8 miles

• 88.2 miles

• 72 miles

Two sides of a right triangle are 8 and 12. Find the missing side length if 8 and 12 are legs.

• 4.5

• 20

• 8.9

• 14.4

Find the length of the missing side. 

• 17 cm
• 22 cm
• 15 cm
• 13 cm

What is the distance between the two points?

• 6.3
• 6.5
• 6.7
• 16