Pythagoras Word Problems

Try answering these word problems. You can answer them here at the blog or at your class blog.

1. Tony has got his kite stuck at the top of a very tall tree. He knows the string on his kite is 20 m long. When he pulls the string tight and holds the very end on the ground it touches 17 m from the bottom of the tree. If the ground is flat, how tall is the tree?
2. Susan is making a jump to ride her bike over. She uses a 1m plank of wood to make the jump, and raises the end 50 cm off the ground with a second piece of wood. How far along the ground from the end of the plank that touches the ground is the second piece of wood?
3. Robert is using a 5m ladder to climb in his upstairs bedroom window. He finds that if he puts the base of the ladder 3.3m from the wall the top leans on the windowsill. How high from the ground is the windowsill?
4. The guy wires holding up an 11m radio transmitter join 2m from the top of the aerial, and are anchored to the ground 7m from the base of the aerial. How long are the guy wires?
5. Tim is standing across a river from Mary. They discover that if they stand exactly opposite each other they can each hold one end of a 5m rope. How long would the rope have to be to reach if Tim moved 8m downstream?