Answer:
Height is 135 ft
Step-by-step explanation:
Notice that wire, pole, and ground form a right angle triangle, for which we name h = height of the pole one of the legs (the horizontal leg) is h - 51. The wire (which is the hypotenuse of the right angle triangle is: h + 24.
Then we can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve for the height (h):
h^2 + (h - 51)^2 = (h + 24)^2
h^2 + h^2 -102 h + 2601 = h^2 + 48 h + 576
grouping all terms on the left of the equal sign, we get:
h^2 -150 h + 2025 = 0
This gives two possible answers:
h = 135
and
h = 15
We opt for h = 135, because the other solution will render a negative leg for the triangle.
