Question

Haley is deep-sea diving with two friends. Eric is exploring a coral reef 12 meters in front of Haley, and Felix is floating on the surface directly above Haley. If Felix and Eric are 20 meters apart, how far apart are Haley and Felix?

Answer 1

We can draw the positions of each person as this:

The positions form a right triangle, of which we know one of the legs and the hypotenuse. We have to find the other leg, that is the distance between Haley and Felix.

We can calculate D, the hypotenuse, using the Pythagorean theorem:

$\begin{gathered} 12^2+L^2=20^2 \\ L^2=20^2-12^2 \\ L^2=400-144 \\ L^2=256 \\ L=\sqrt[]{256} \\ L=16 \end{gathered}$

Answer: Felix and Haley are approximately 16 meters apart.