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One tower is 50 ft high and another tower is 30 ft high. The towers are 150 ft apart. A guy
wire is to run from a point A located on the ground between the two towers to the top of
each of the towers.
a) Locate Point A so that the total length of guy wire is minimized.
b) Show in general that regardless of the height of the towers, the length of guy wire is
minimized if the angles at A between the wire and the ground are equal.

I think I have part a) but mainly need help with b). Any feedback would be amazing :)

2006-11-03 06:44:41 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Mathematics

4 answers

Draw a diagram. Let x = the distance from point A to the base of the 50' tower. Then 150-x is the distance from point A to the base of the 30' tower. There are two right triangles that form. The first formed by the 50' tower has hypontenuse (which is the distance from the top of the tower to point A) of length = sqrt (50^2 + x^2). The second formed by the 30' tower has hypotenuse (which is the distance from the top of the tower to point A) of length = sqrt (30^2 + (150 - x)^2). You want to minimize the length of the two hypotenuses (hypoteni?). If you graph the following function (it's not pretty!)

y = sqrt (2500 + x^2) + sqrt (900 + 22500 - 300 x + x ^2)

and find the minimum you will have your first answer. The min of this graph is at approx x = 93.9, y = 170.

2006-11-03 08:40:18 · answer #1 · answered by mortgagelns 3 · 0 0

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2016-10-16 07:29:10 · answer #2 · answered by doti 4 · 0 0

Your answer to a) should have come from a parabolic equation whose minimum is the point you chose.

2006-11-03 06:47:32 · answer #3 · answered by arbiter007 6 · 0 0

I believe that its two triangles you are looking for. they need to be similar so all the angles in the triangles are the same.

2006-11-03 07:52:19 · answer #4 · answered by Andrew H 3 · 0 0

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