Question

A guy wire for a suspension bridge runs from the ground diagonally to the top of the closest pylon to make a triangle. We can use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the length of guy wire needed. The square of the distance between the wire on the ground and the pylon on the ground is 90,000 feet. The square of the height of the pylon is 160,000 feet. So the length of the guy wire can be found by evaluating 90,000 + 160,000 . What is the length of the guy wire?

Answer 1

The guy wire lenght is 500 ft.

Explanation:

The Pythagorean Theorem says the sum of the squares two adyacent sides is equal to the square of the opposite side.

Applied in this example, we can rephrase it as:

The sum of the square of the pylon height with the square of the distance from the guy wire tip to the pylon is Equal to the square of the Guy wire lenght.

So:

`PylonHeight^(2)  + floordistance^(2) = GuyWireLength^(2) \\160.000 + 90.000 = GuyWireLength^(2) \\\\√(160.000 + 90.000) =GuyWireLength\\GuyWireLength= 500 ft`