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Pythagorean Theorem 14534 Views


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Description:

Ah, the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras’ masterpiece. All his other theorems pale in comparison to this one.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:06

Pythagorean Theorem, a la Shmoop. Peter Pan has a problem.

00:09

It's been a few years since he left Never Never Land to play house with Wendy...

00:13

...but it turns out the real world isn't as easy as he thought it would be.

00:16

Wendy has become a little disillusioned...

00:19

...not a surprise, considering she fell for someone who never used to get a day older.

00:24

But now Peter's got a gut, he's losing his hair, and has some unsightly bags growing

00:28

under his eyes. Worst of all, his shadow has left him again...

00:32

And Wendy's real big on her man having a shadow that behaves.

00:35

So Peter has decided he's going to force his shadow to get in line.

00:40

The only question is, how long should it be? Michael and John have been introducing Peter

00:45

to a little pre-algebra...

00:46

...so Peter figures he can use Pythagorean Theorem to help him.

00:50

He knows that Wendy wants the tippy-top of Peter's head to be exactly 10 feet away from

00:54

the top of his shadow's head at all times.

00:56

Yeah, she's got some pretty unusual demands, but he fell in love with the whole person...

01:01

Well, Peter is now 6 feet tall himself...

01:06

And he has learned that the Pythagorean Theorem says that "a" squared plus "b" squared equals

01:11

"c" squared. It only works for right triangles...

01:14

...However, fortunately for Peter, he and his shadow form a perfect right angle.

01:19

His own height squared is 36, while the desired distance from the head of his shadow squared

01:23

is 100. So Peter needs his shadow to be a number that,

01:27

when squared, makes up the difference.

01:29

That difference is 64...

01:32

... the square root of which is 8. Peter is a lost boy no longer!

01:37

He now knows that his shadow needs to be exactly 8 feet long.

01:41

We don't think it will be giving Peter any more problems.

01:43

And Wendy seems much happier these days. Now if only they can solve their pest problem.

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