there is bamboo 10 ft high, the upper end of which, being broken, reaches the ground 3 ft from the stem. find the height of the break

Question

need help solving this problem from a worksheet. the answer has to be in a complete sentence with the correct units

Answer 1

Imagine a right triangle with one leg being 3 ( the ground distance), the other leg being h (the unbroken part of the tree) and the hypotenuse being 10 - h (the broken part).

h^2 + 3^2 = (10 - h)^2

h^2 + 9 = 100 - 20h + h^2

20 h = 91

h = 91/20 = 4.55 ft