Question

Raymond was riding a zip-cable from the top of a viewing post. The cable is 50 yards long. The viewing post is 40 yards high and forms a right angle with the ground, as shown in the picture below. Note: Figure is not drawn to scale. Given this information, how far is the bottom of the cable from the base of the viewing post?

Answer 1

30 yd

Explanation:

The diagram is probably something like the one below.

Raymond is at point A, at the top of the viewing post.

The zip-cable runs along line AC, and line BC represents the distance from the bottom of the viewing post to the bottom of the cable.

∆ABC is a right triangle, so we can apply Pythagoras’ Theorem.

x² + 40² = 50²

x² + 1600 = 2500 Subtract 1600 from each side

x² = 900 Take the square root of each side

x = 30 yd

The bottom of the cable is 30 yd from the bottom of the viewing post.