SOLUTION: A balloon is secured to rope that is staked to the ground. A breeze blows the balloon so the the rope is taut while the balloon is directly above a flag pole that is 70 feet from

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Question 360227: A balloon is secured to rope that is staked to the ground. A breeze blows the balloon so the the rope is taut while the balloon is directly above a flag pole that is 70 feet from where the rope is staked down. Find the altitude of the balloon if the rope is 120 feet long.
Answer by JBarnum(2146) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
this is actually a geometry problem using the Pythagorean Theorem a%5E2%2Bb%5E2=c%5E2
the rope pulled tight over the pole makes a triangle with the ground. the base of ground is 70ft the hypotenuse in this case is the length of the rope at 120 ft so the missing side is the length of the pole
a and b represent the 2 smaller sides and c represents the hypotenuse
a=70 b=? and c=120
a%5E2%2Bb%5E2=c%5E2
70%5E2%2Bb%5E2=120%5E2
4900%2Bb%5E2=14400
b%5E2=9500
sqrt%28b%5E2%29=sqrt%289500%29
b%5E2=9500
highlight%28b=97.4679%29ft