Question

bought a new tent to take on the next Cub Scouts camping trip. The center pole of the to tent is 16 ft. tall and the sides of the tent are 20 ft. on the slant. How wide is the base of the tent?​

Answer 1

24 ft

Explanation:

The is a center pole and two side poles and the bottom. This triangle can be broken into 2 smaller triangles. When finding the base this requires the quadratic formula. a^2+b^2= C^2

We are given a and c. A is 16 and c is 20. The equation can be changed to c^2-a^2=b^2.

20^2-16^2=b^2

400-256=b^2

144=b^2

12=b

But remember there are two triangles so the base is 2b which is 24