SOLUTION: A donkey is tied with a rope to a post which is 15m from a fence.If the length of the rope between the donkey and the post is 17m, calculate the length of the fence within the reac

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Question 1108395: A donkey is tied with a rope to a post which is 15m from a fence.If the length of the rope between the donkey and the post is 17m, calculate the length of the fence within the reach of the donkey.
Answer by greenestamps(13209) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


When the donkey is as far along the fence as possible, the 15m from the donkey to the fence is one leg of a right triangle with the 17m rope as the hypotenuse. The Pythagorean Theorem then tells us the length of the other leg is 8m.

Since the donkey can go that far along the fence in each direction, the length of fence within his reach is 16m.