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5.01 Pythagoras' Theorem

Worksheet
Right-angled triangles
1

Name the hypotenuse of each triangle:

a
b
c
2

Use Pythagoras' theorem to determine whether the following triangles are right-angled:

a
b
c
d
Finding the length of a side
3

Calculate the value of c in the following triangles:

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
4

Find the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle, to two decimal places, given that the other two sides are:

a
13.6 mm and 1.2 mm in length.
b
7 m and 9 m in length.
c
Both 17.9 m in length.
5

Calculate the value of a in the following triangles:

a
b
c
d
e
6

Calculate the value of b in the following triangles:

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
7

Find the value of b, to two decimal places, where b is the length of one of the shorter sides of a right-angled triangle which has:

a
A hypotenuse of length 13 mm and another side of length 8 mm.
b
A hypotenuse of length 3 cm and another side of length 2 cm.
2D Applications
8

Find the value of the pronumerals in the following diagrams. Round your answers to one decimal place.

a
b
c
d
9

Find the value of k in the following figure. Round your answer to two decimal places.

10

Consider the following figure. Complete the following, rounding your answers to two decimal places:

a

Find the value of x.

b

Find the value of y.

c

Hence, find the length of the base of the triangle.

11

Two flag posts of height 12 m and 17 m are erected 20 m apart. Find the length, l, of the string needed to join the tops of the two posts. Round your answer to one decimal place.

12

The screen on a handheld device has dimensions 9 cm by 5 cm, and a diagonal of length x cm. Find the value of x. Round your answer to two decimal places.

13

William and Kenneth are playing football together. At one point in the game, they are near the same corner of the field. William is on the goal line, 11 m away from the corner, while Kenneth is on the side line, 17 m away from the corner.

Find the shortest distance between William and Kenneth. Round your answer to two decimal places.

14

A movie director wants to shoot a scene where the hero of the film fires a grappling hook from the roof of one building to the roof of another. The shorter building is 37 m tall, the taller building is 54 m tall and the street between them is 10 m wide.

Find the minimum length of rope, l, needed for the grappling hook. Give your answer correct to two decimal places.

15

Fiona's house has the outer dimensions as shown in the diagram below:

Find the height of the house, h, to two decimal places.

16

A city council plans to build a seawall and boardwalk along a local coastline. According to safety regulations, the seawall needs to be 5.25 m high and 7.66 m deep and will be built at the bottom of a 14.78 m long sloped section of shoreline. This means that the boardwalk will need to be built 2.43 m above the seawall, so that it is level with the public area near the beach. This information is shown in the diagram below:

Find the width of the boardwalk, x m, correct to two decimal places.

17

Consider the crane shown in the diagram. To help bear heavier loads, a support cable joins the end of one arm of the crane to the other, through a small tower that rises h m above the crane arm.

Find, to two decimal places:

a

The value of h

b

The value of l

c

The total length of the support cable

18

Quentin leaves his house in the morning and jogs 4.2 km due north. He stops for lunch and then walks 2.8 km due west to visit his sister, before jogging directly back to his house.

Find the total length of Quentin's afternoon journey, to one decimal place.

19

Barry wants to measure the length of his ladder, but he doesn't have a long enough tape measure. Instead, he leans the ladder up against a wall of vertical height 2.4 m. He measures that the foot of the ladder rests at a horizontal distance of 1.8 m away from the base wall.

Find the length of the ladder, to the nearest metre.

20

Neville is making a rectangular shaped pencil case. He decides to make one side of the pencil case 18 cm wide, in order to fit his pens, and determines that the diagonal will need to be 20 cm long, in order to fit his ruler.

Find the length of the other side of the pencil case. Round your answer to one decimal place.

21

Two flagpoles of height 14 m and 19 m are 22 m apart. A length of string is connected to the tops of the two flagpoles and pulled taut.

Find the length of the string, to one decimal place.

3D Applications
22

Consider the cone with slant height of 13 m and perpendicular height of 12 m:

a

Find the length of the radius, r.

b

Hence, find the length of the diameter of the cone's base.

23

The following solid is a right pyramid with a square base. The pyramid has its apex, V, aligned directly above the centre of its base, W.

a

Calculate the length of AW, correct to two decimal places.

b

Hence, find the length of VW, correct to two decimal places.

24

A square prism has dimensions of 12 cm by 12 cm by 15 cm as shown:

a

Calculate the length of HF, correct to two decimal places.

b

Calculate the length of DF, correct to two decimal places.

25

All edges of the following cube are 5 cm long. Find, to two decimal places:

a

The value of x

b

The value of y

26

Consider the triangular prism below:

Find, to two decimal places:

a

The value of x

b

The value of y

c

The value of z

27

Consider the following rectangular prism:

a

Find the value of x to two decimal places.

b

Find the value of y to two decimal places.

A new diagonal has been added as shown, with length z cm:

c

Find the value of z to two decimal places.

d

Hence, find the area of the triangle bounded by the lengths a, y \text{ and } z.

28

A right-angled triangular divider has been placed inside a box, as shown in the diagram:

Calculate the area of the triangular divider, correct to two decimal places.

29

A soft drink can has a height of 11 cm and a radius of 4 cm. Find L, the length of the longest straw that can fit into the can.

Round your answer down to the nearest cm, to ensure it fits inside the can.

30

A juice container has the shape of a rectangular prism. It needs a straw that must extend 20 mm beyond the container while touching the furthest corner of the base.

a

Find the exact length of the diagonal of the base, x.

b

Hence, find the length of the long diagonal of the juice container, z. Round your answer to two decimal places.

c

Hence, calculate the length of the straw needed. Round your answer to the nearest millimetre.

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Outcomes

1.3.1

use Pythagoras’ theorem to solve practical problems in two dimensions and for simple applications in three dimensions

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