Question

Randy wants to attach a 16 16 foot string of lights to the top of the 15 15 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

Answer:

5.57 feet

Step-by-step explanation:

In this problem, the light string, the height of the mast and the distance between the base of the mast and the end of the string form a right triangle, in which:

- The hypothenuse is the string

- The height is the mast

- The base is the distance between the base of the mast and the end of the light string

Here in this problem, we have:

$L=16 ft$ (length of the string, hypothenuse)

$h=15 ft$ (height of the mast, height)

So we can find the distance between the base of the mast and the end of the string just by applying Pythagorean's theorem:

$d=\sqrt{L^2-h^2}=\sqrt{16^2-15^2}=5.57 ft$