a man holds an avocado picking pole two feet from his body and uses it to cut the stem of an avocado 15 feet up in a tree. It falls 15 feet from the man. About how long is the picking pole
Call the unknown length of the pole, L
And we have a right triangle such that
15^2 + 15^2 = (2 + L)^2 simplify
225 + 225 = L^2 + 4L + 4
450 = L^2 + 4L + 4 rearrange as
L^2 + 4L - 446 = 0 using the Quadratic Formula, L = about 19.213 ft.
