Question

Randy wants to attach a 26 foot string of lights to the top of the 20 foot mast of his sailboat. How far from the base of the mast should he attach the end of the light string? Round your answer to two decimal places.

Answer 1

16.61 ft

Explanation:

You can envision this scenario as a right triangle, with the 26 feet string being the hypotenuse, and the ground being the base.

According to the Pythagorean theorem, if a, b, and c represent the sides of a triangle, and c is the hypotenuse, a²+ b² = c².

Replacing the known variables in the equations makes it: 20²+ b² = 26².

Simplifying it gets; 400 + b² = 676.

Subtracting 400 from both sides gets; b² = 276.

So b would equal √276, which rounded out to two decimal places is 16.61.