Question

A flagpole broke in a storm. 777 meters are still sticking straight out of the ground, where it snapped, but the remaining piece has hinged over and touches the ground at a point 242424 meters away horizontally.
How tall was the flagpole before it broke?

Answer 1

The broken flagpole forms a right triangle, where the vertical leg is the piece still standing and the hypotenuse is the broken piece.

So, the original length is the sum of the hypotenuse and the vertical leg.

The hypotenuse can be found using the pythagorean theorem:

$h=\sqrt{7^2+24^2}=25$

So, the flag was originally $7+25=32$ meters long.