SOLUTION: A scuba diver has a taut rope connecting the dive boat to an anchor on the ocean floor. The rope is 110 ft long. The water is 55 ft deep. To the nearest tenth of a foot, how far is
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Question 567625: A scuba diver has a taut rope connecting the dive boat to an anchor on the ocean floor. The rope is 110 ft long. The water is 55 ft deep. To the nearest tenth of a foot, how far is the anchor from a point directly below the boat?
--Basically, I need to know where each length goes. I used 55 as the height of the right triangle and 110 as the base. Is this correct?
Thank you. Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Er...not quite!
The taut 110-foot rope connecting the anchor to the boat would be the hypotenuse of such a right triangle, but you're correct in using 55ft. as its height.
Now you need to apply the Pythagorean theorem to find the third side of this triangle (the base) which would give you the horizontal distance of the boat from the anchor. You need to find b (for base) to get your answer. Substitute and Take the square root of both sides. Round to the nearest tenth. feet.
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