Asha and Suman’s mud forts have heights 9 cm and 16 cm. They are 24 cm apart. How far (in cm)are the fort tops from each other ?

25

From the above figure,

DE = CD + CE

= DE = AB + CE

= CE = DE - AB

= CE = 16 - 9

= CE = 7 cm

In \(\Delta \)ACE, pythagoras theorem,

\( {(AE) }^{2 } \) = \( {(AC) }^{2 } \) + \( {(CE) }^{2 } \)

= \( {(AE) }^{2 } \) = \( {(24) }^{2 } \) + \( {(7) }^{2 } \)

= \( {(AE) }^{2 } \) = 625

= AE = 25 cm

Therefore, fort tops are 25 cm far from each other.