Question

How long is a wire reaching from the top of a 12-foot pole to a point 6 feet from the base of the pole?

Answer 1

The pole is 12 foot long.

The wire from the top to the ground, 6feet from the pole, forms a right angle triangle.

By Pythagoras' Theorem:

x² = 12² + 6²

x² = 144 + 36

x² = 180 Take the square root of both sides.

x = √180 Use a calculator

x ≈ 13.42 feet.

Length of wire ≈ 13.42 feet.

Answer 2

Using Pythagoras' theorem it is 6 times the sq rt of 5 which is about 13.416 feet to 3 decimal places