Question

A hummingbird lives in a nest that is 12 meters high in a tree. The hummingbird flies 15
meters to get from its nest to a flower on the ground. How far is the flower from the base of
the tree?

Answer 1

Answer:

The flower is 9 meters from the base of the tree.

Step-by-step explanation:

Use the Pythagorean theorem to solve. We are given the length of one leg and the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

$a^{2} +b^{2} =c^{2}$

where a and b are the legs, and c is the hypotenuse.

Plug in the given values and solve:

$x^{2} +12^{2} =15^{2} \\x^{2} +144=255\\x^{2} =81\\x=9$

The flower is 9 meters from the base of the tree.