A rectangle with dimensions 100 cm by 150 cm is tilted so that one corner is 20 cm above a horizontal line, as shown. To the nearest centimetre, the height of vertex above the horizontal line is . What is the value of ?
Problem 103
Official solution
We enclose the given rectangle in a larger rectangle with horizontal and vertical sides so that the vertices of the smaller rectangle lie on the sides of the larger rectangle. We will also remove the units from the problem and deal with dimensionless quantities. Since is a rectangle, then and . Since is right-angled at , by the Pythagorean Theorem, . Since , then . The height of above the horizontal line is equal to the length of , which equals which equals . Now is right-angled at and is right-angled at . Also, , which means that , since . Since as well (using the sum of the angles in ), we obtain , which tells us that is similar to . Therefore, and so . Finally, . Rounded to the nearest integer, is 167. Since the length of to the nearest integer is and this must equal 167, then .