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

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

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

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Wendy has become a little disillusioned...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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to a little pre-algebra...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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when squared, makes up the difference.

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That difference is 64...

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

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

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

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

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