Finding the Height of an Object

You measure your own height with a tape measure or yardstick, and you measure the walls in a room by standing on a chair and using a tape measure or other instrument. But what about finding the height of a tree or building that s too tall to reach the top of or inaccessible to you Enter, our hero, 

The Problem How tall is a tree if a kite string stretched from the top of the tree to a point on the ground measures 39 feet, and the distance from the base of the tree to that same point on the ground measures 36 feet (Will you be able to put your star on the top of the tree if you can reach 20 feet high ) 

You re waiting patiently in line to catch a ride to the top of a mountain so you can ski down. You know the height of the mountain and the length of the cable carrying the skiers on their T-bars. But just how tall is that tower that s sitting on top of the mountain  

Subtracting 72,900 from each side, a2 = 1,440,000. The positive square root of 1,440,000 is 1,200. Because the mountain is 1,150 feet tall, the tower must be 1,200 - 1,150 = 50 feet tall. 

How tall is the window in a building You can t go inside the building to take the measurements, but you have information about some distances outside. The distance from the top of the window and the bottom of the window to a single point on the ground are known numbers. 

---