SOLUTION: Here is a word problem that I am having trouble with... A rope is stretched from the ground to the top of an antenna tower. The wire is 30ft. long. The height of the tower is 6f

Question 195801: Here is a word problem that I am having trouble with...
A rope is stretched from the ground to the top of an antenna tower. The wire is 30ft. long. The height of the tower is 6ft. greater than the distance d from the towers base to the end of the wire. Find the distance d and the height of the tower.
Thank you and appreciate any help!!!!
Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Presuming the tower is exactly vertical and the ground is perfectly level -- an ok assumption in a math word problem, but not necessarily valid in a real life situation -- then you have a right triangle with a hypotenuse of 30, a short leg of d, and a long leg of d + 6, so:

So just solve the quadratic for d. Hint: It factors. Exclude the negative root because you are looking for a positive measure of length.

John

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