Question

A wire extends from the top of an 8-meter telephone pole to a stake in the ground 3 meters

away. How long is the wire? If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

The length of the wire is approximately 8.54 meters.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the length of the wire, we can use the Pythagorean theorem.

The wire acts as the hypotenuse of a right triangle, with the height of the pole as the vertical side and the distance to the stake as the horizontal side.

Using the formula a^2 + b^2 = c^2, where a is the vertical side, b is the horizontal side, and c is the hypotenuse (the length of the wire), we can plug in the values to solve for c.

a = 8 meters (height of the pole)

b = 3 meters (distance to the stake)

c = √(a^2 + b^2)

c = √(8^2 + 3^2)

c = √(64 + 9)

c = √73

c ≈ 8.54 meters