solve to the words problem

Question

if a carpenter removes a slanted wall containing a fireplace to make a corner and puts up new drywall that is 6 ft long on one corner wall and 8 ft corner on the other corner wall, how long was the original slanting wall containing the fireplace?

Answer 1

This problem is an example of using Pythagorean's Theorem to solve the missing side. The wording makes it difficult to decipher but essentially you have corner, which by definition is a 90^º angle, where a slanted wall once resided. The length of the now replaced slanting wall becomes the hypotenuse. Using Pythagorean's Theorem we solve for the missing side, which will be denoted as c.

c² = a² + b² = 6² + 8² = 36 + 64 = 100

c = √100 = 10º

The length of the original wall is 10 feet.