Choose a room you would like to decorate:

Question

_My Bed room___________________________
Measure the length of one wall in inches: ___72_______________________

2. Choose a size of paper to use.
*I recommend just using a standard 8.5 inch by 11 inch piece of paper. Then fold it diagonally and cut it to make a square.

*Once you cut off the bottom portion of the rectangular, the sides of the square will each be 8.5 inches. If you would like, you can cut 0.5 inch off the top of the square and 0.5 off the right side of the square to make it 8 inches by 8 inches. That is optional.

3. Cut the square in half along the diagonal to form two paper triangles. These will be your pennant flags.

4. Measure the diagonal of the triangle: Use the Pythagorean Theorem ( a^2+b^2=c^2) to determine the length of the diagonal (hypotenuse):

A2 + B2 = C2
122 + 122 = 24
24 + 24 = 72

*Your actual measurement and your Pythagorean Theorem answer should be the same or very similar.

5. Divide the actual length of the room (measurement from Step 1), by the length of the hypotenuse:
72 x 4 = 288
288 / 72 = 4

*That is how many triangles you will need to create your “string of pennant flags”.
How many flags will you need to cover the entire length of the wall? 288

 
Analyze It Questions:
Why might your measurement of the diagonal’s length be different than the length you found using the Pythagorean Theorem?

Your measurement of the diagonal’s length might be off track, but my measurements were fine so I am on the right track.

Answer 1

Aaaa thankss so much this is really helpful. Btw, for the analyze question another answer may be "The Pythagorean Theorem is more precise, whilst a ruler/tape measure usually gives an estimate."