Question

Last summer, Marrero was at Newgrange, a stone mound in Ireland that has a diameter of 250 feet. He found a walkway 62 feet long that leads to the center of the mound. Help Marrero find perpendicular distance x from the end of the walkway to either side of the mound.

Answer 1

• 108 ft

Explanation:

The line connecting the center with the end of the walkway is radius and is the hypotenuse of the right triangle.

Horizontal leg is the distance x.

Vertical leg has the length:

• (250)/2 - 62 = 63 ft

Using Pythagorean theorem to find the length of x:

• x² = (250/2)² - 63²
• x² = 125² - 63²
• x² = 11656
• x = √11656
• x = 107.96 ≈ 108