Pythagorean Theorem Word Problems

John leaves school to go home. He walks 6 blocks North and then 8 blocks west. How far is John from the school? Which equation could be used to solve the problem?

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 12 feet and one of its legs is 3 feet. What is the length of the other leg? Which equation could be used to solve the problem?

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

• 169 feet

• 18 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

Lightning struck a tree, causing it to break and crash to theground. The tree broke off 12 feet above the ground and thebroken part was 20 feet long. If the broken tree formed a right triangle, how far away is the tip of the fallen tree?

A company must stretch a cable from the top of a tower that is 25 meters high to a point 50 meters away from the base of the tower. How long is the length of the cable? (Round to the nearest tenth).

Oh No! I can't get to my soccer ball because I can't remember how far away from the house the ladder needs to be!

The wall is 15 feet high. The ladder is 20 feet long.

How far does the ladder need to be from the house? Round to the nearest tenth).

• 13.0 feet

• 25 feet

• 15.2 feet

• 13.2 feet

Q1. What is the length of the object?

• 9.2 in

• 11 in

• 13 in

• 9.6 in

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