Question

The height of a cell phone tower is 200 ft tall. The tower is secured by 3 wires, stretching from the top of the tower to spots on the ground 50 ft away from the base of the tower. Each wire creates a right triangle with the tower and the ground. What is the length of each wire to the nearest foot?

Question 14 options:

42,500 ft


354 ft


3,704 ft


206 ft

Answer 1

206 ft

Explanation:

Each wire is a hypotenuse of a right triangle in which the height of the tower is one leg and the distance from the anchor of the wire to the base of the tower is the other leg.

Leg 1: 200 ft

Leg 2: 50 ft

Hypotenuse: x

200² + 50² = x²

x² = 40,000 + 2,500

x² = 42,500

x = √42,500

x = 206

Answer: 206 ft