Question

A lighthouse beacon can be seen 17mi in all directions. To the nearest square mile, what is the area over which the beacon can be seen?

Answer 1

Imagine this as a circle. The circle will have a radius of 17mi and the lighthouse will be in the middle. The area of the circle will be the area over which the beacon can be seen.

$A=\pi r^{2}$ is the equation for the area of the circle where A is the area.

Now we simply plug in our information

A=$\pi (17)^{2}$
A=907.9$mi^{2}$