Use The Pythagorean Theorem — Lesson 6 Homework Practice

That night, Nonna called a contractor. "Fifty feet," she told him firmly. "My granddaughter did the math."

The old lighthouse on Breaker Point had been silent for forty years, but Sarah’s geometry teacher, Mr. Elian, had given her class an unusual challenge: "Use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve a real problem, or create one."

She spread the blueprint across the kitchen table. The lantern room (Point A) was 40 feet above the rocky ground (Point B). The base of the cliff (Point C) was 30 feet away from the lighthouse door because of a jagged drop-off. Lesson 6 Homework Practice Use The Pythagorean Theorem

"If I put the ladder straight down from A to B," Sarah murmured, "it's 40 feet. But the ground slopes away. The building code says the ladder’s foot must rest on stable ground at Point C, 30 horizontal feet from the lighthouse wall."

The next day in class, Mr. Elian held up Sarah’s homework. "This is what I wanted," he said. "You didn't just plug numbers into a formula. You found the hidden right triangle in a real place." That night, Nonna called a contractor

Most kids measured TV screens or ladder heights. But Sarah’s Nonna had just bought the lighthouse at auction. "It’s a fixer-upper," her grandmother had said, handing Sarah a dusty floor plan. "But the old spiral staircase is gone. We need to install a new fire escape ladder from the lantern room to the ground."

"Fifty feet," she whispered. "The ladder needs to be fifty feet long." Elian, had given her class an unusual challenge:

Her pencil moved to the margin of the homework sheet. Lesson 6: The Pythagorean Theorem. a² + b² = c².