Question

The end of a tent is in the shape of a triangle. The base of the tent end is 24 feet long and has a zipper that is 5 feet long and acts as a perpendicular bisector to the base of the tent. What is the distance of a side of the tent, x?

Answer 1

Solution:

Given:

From the question, the tent can be sketched as shown below;

Since the zipper acts as a perpendicular bisector to the base of the tent, the base is split into two equal parts.

From the sketch, a right triangle can be drawn out to get the side of the tent.

Using Pythagoras theorem to get the side of the tent,

$\begin{gathered} \text{hypotenuse}^2=opposite^2+adjacent^2 \\ \\ \text{where;} \\ \text{hypotenuse}=x \\ \text{opposite}=5 \\ \text{adjacent}=12 \end{gathered}$

Hence,

$\begin{gathered} \text{hypotenuse}^2=opposite^2+adjacent^2 \\ x^2=5^2+12^2 \\ x^2=25+144 \\ x^2=169 \\ \text{Taking the square root of both sides,} \\ x=\sqrt[]{169} \\ x=13\text{feet} \end{gathered}$

Therefore, the distance of the side of the tent is 13 feet.