Afootball team gained 7 yards on the first down, lost 15 yards on the second down, and gained 12 yards on the third down. how many yards does it need to gain on the fourth down to have a 10 yard gain ?

answer

d. 10

explanation

the distance from point y to wx is the height of the triangle.

using pythagoras theorem,

group similar terms to get,

this implies that,

take positive square root of both sides to get,

this implies that,

we have three similar triangles, because each has a right angle and shares an angle.   let's write the angles in order: opposite to short leg, long leg, hypotenuse.

cab similar to bad similar to cbd

or as ratios,

ca: ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

we also know

ac = ad + cd

(ad+cd): ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

(ad+cd)/cb=cb/cd

we have cb=6, ad=5 and seek x=cd.

we reject the negative root and conclude x=4

answer: 4