Question

Anne wants to tie a support line from the top of a 50 foot radio tower to an anchor spot 30 feet from the tower’s base. approximately how long will the line need to be?

Answer 1

1. Check the picture.

2. The anchor spot, the basement and the tower top form a right triangle ABC, as shown in the picture. The side lengths of this triangle are 30 ft and 50 ft. We need to find the length of the hypotenuse.

3. Using Pythagorean theorem :

$AC^{2}= AB^{2}+ BC^{2}= 30^{2} + 50^{2}=900+2500=3400 AC= \sqrt{3400}= 58.31 (ft)$