Name: _______________________
Triangles – Word Problems
Date: ___________
Class: Pre-Algebra
Sheet # 12-08
In the movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, Dorothy is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and
embarks upon a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home. Accompanying her on
this journey are a scarecrow (looking for brains), a tin man (looking for a heart), and a lion
(looking for courage).
When the wizard bestows an honorary degree of “thinkology” upon the scarecrow, the
scarecrow recites Pythagorean’s Theorem:
"The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the
square root of the remaining side."
On the lines below, explain if this is a true or false mathematical statement.
1
In a Best Buy catalog, a 32 inch television is on
sale. If the screen measures 14 inches in height,
what is the width of the screen to the nearest
inch?
Show your work.
3
Laura traveled 24 m north and then 10 m east.
How far was she from her starting point?
Show your work.
Answer _________ m
Answer _________ in
2
Ms. Bisal is locked out of her house and the only
open window is on the 2nd floor, 20 feet above
the ground. She borrows a 24-foot ladder from
one of her neighbors. How far must the ladder be
placed from the house in order to reach the
opened window? Round to the nearest tenth.
Show your work.
4
A park is in the shape of a rectangle 24 feet long
and 18 feet wide. How much shorter is your walk
if you walk diagonally across the park rather than
along the two sides of the park?
Show your work.
Answer _________ ft
Answer _________ ft
5
The length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is
34 inches and the length of one of its legs is 16
inches. What is the length, in inches, of the other
leg of this right triangle?
A 25
B
16
C
30
D
18
9
Answer _________ cm
10
6
Amanda runs across the diagonal of a rectangular
field that has a length of 40 yards and a width of
30 yards. What is the length of the diagonal, in
yards, that Amanda runs?
A 50
B
60
C
70
D
80
If the legs of a right triangle are 10 cm and 24 cm,
how long is the hypotenuse?
Show your work.
The course for a local triathlon has the shape of a
right triangle. The legs of the triangle consist of a
4 mile swim and a 10-mile run. The hypotenuse
of the triangle is the biking portion of the event.
How far is the biking part of the triathlon? Round
to the nearest tenth if necessary. Show your work.
Answer _________ miles
7
Find, in simplest radical form, the length of a
diagonal of a square whose side is 5 inches.
Show your work.
11
Clifford’s dog house is shaped like a tent. The
slanted sides are both 5 feet long and the bottom
of the house is 6 feet across. What is the height of
his dog house, in feet, at its tallest point?
Show your work.
Answer _________ ft
Answer _________ in
8
12
What is the length of the diagonal of a square if
the length of a side is 14 cm? Express your
answer to the nearest tenth.
Show your work.
13
Answer _________ cm
Tina measures the distances between three cities
on a map. The distances between the three cities
are 45 miles, 56 miles, and 72 miles. Do the
positions of the three cities form a right triangle?
Justify your response.
If you know that the two sides of a right triangle
measure 10 in. and 8 in., why is this not enough
information to be sure of finding the length of the
third side?