Question

A wind turbine has three equally spaced blades that are each 131 feet long

What is the distance y from the tip of one blade to the tip of another blade? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. Show work

Answer 1

Explanation:

Picture this circumstance occurring within a circle. The center of the circle is where all the blades meet. That means that in terms of a circle's parts, these blades are the radii of the circle. And if they are all evenly spaced out, and there are 3 of them, the central angle in between each pair is 120 degrees (360/3). Once we know that, we can use the arc length formula for a circle which is

`AL=(\theta)/(360)*2\pi r` and filling in:

`AL=(120)/(360)*2(3.1415)(131)` so

AL = 274.4 feet