Real life math

I belong to a numeracy list serv that has had a discussion of "word problems" and how often what teachers think are real life problems are condescending or irrelevant to students' lives.

This week N sent me an email in the evening with a sketch asking if he could call me.  I had supper first and then wrote Sure.  He didn't call, but we discussed the problem the next morning.  His supervisor had asked him to produce four of a certain object according to the sketch by the next morning. He said he panicked but was able to do so using CAD.

We were both pleasantly surprised when we used the Pythagorean theorem to solve the problem the next morning.  He said that our solution was exactly right and that was how he had made the object.