Arectangular reflection pond in a park is 16 feet long. the maintenace crew placed a string of flags 20 feet long across the pond diagonally. what is the width of the pond in feet? a 12 b.) 144 c.) 4 d.) 26

  A.)  12

Step-by-step explanation:

Each triangle has the proportions of a 3-4-5 right triangle, multiplied by 4 ft. The short side is 3·4 ft = 12 ft.

In case you haven't run across 3-4-5 right triangles, you can use the Pythagorean theorem to find w. That tells you ...

  20² = w² + 16² . . . . . the square of the hypotenuse is the sum of the squares of the other two sides

  400 -256 = w² . . . . . subtract 16²; next, take the square root

  √144 = w = 12 . . . . . feet

Comment on 3-4-5 right triangles

There are a few "Pythagorean triples" that show up in algebra problems a lot. One is 3-4-5. Others are 5-12-13 and 7-24-25. It can be useful to keep these sets of numbers handy. The 3-4-5 triangle is also interesting because this is the only Pythagorean triple that is also an arithmetic sequence.

this answer is !