A camper attaches a rope from the top of her tent, 4 feet above the ground, to give it more support. If the rope is 8 feet long, about how far will the stake need to be from the middle of her tent?
Question
A camper attaches a rope from the top of her tent, 4 feet above the ground, to give it more support. If the rope is 8 feet long, about how far will the stake need to be from the middle of her tent?
Solution
This problem can be solved using the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.
Here, the rope is the hypotenuse of a right triangle, the height of the tent is one side, and the distance from the tent to the stake is the other side.
- First, square the length of the rope: 8^2 = 64.
- Then, square the height of the tent: 4^2 = 16.
- Subtract the square of the tent height from the square of the rope length: 64 - 16 = 48.
- Finally, take the square root of this result to find the distance from the tent to the stake: √48 ≈ 6.93 feet.
So, the stake will need to be approximately 6.93 feet from the middle of her tent.
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