Question

A circus performer walks on a tightrope 25 feet above the ground. The tightrope is supported by two beams and two support cables. If the distance between each beam and the base of its support cable is 15 feet, what is the length of the support cable? Round to the nearest foot.

Answer 1

The length of the support cable is about 29 feet.

If you sketch out the question, you will see that it will form a right triangle with the cable as the hypotenuse.

Just set up and use the Pythagorean Theorem.

15^2 + 25^2 = c^2
850 = c^2
29.15 = c