Question

An overhead wire stretches from the service drop that is 20 ft from the ground, on a building to an insulator on a pole 35 ft from the ground. How long is the wire if the pole and building are 48 ft apart?

Answer 1

The cable measures 50.29 ft

Explanation:

Graphing the description (see attached) shows the formation of a right triangle, so you can apply the Pythagorean theorem.

Pythagoras' theorem states that in every right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (in this case, is x) is equal to the sum of the squares of the respective lengths of the legs (in this case, they are y, z).

Be

x = cable length =?

y = distance between pole and building = 48 feet

z = distance from insulator to service drop = (35 - 20) = 15 feet

Then, apply Pythagoras' theorem,

`x^(2) =48^(2) +15^(2) \\x^(2) =2,304 + 225\\x^(2) =2,529\\x = √(2,529) \\x = 50.29 ft`

Hence, the cable measures 50.29 ft

Hope this helps!