Question 164539
a radio tower located 18 miles north of a straight highway has a transmission 
radius of 33 miles. find x the length of the section of highway that is within
 the transmission radius of the tower.
:
If you draw this out, you can see that two right triangles are formed by the
 radii, the highway, and 18 mi. The radius will be the hypotenuse, the third
 side will be half the distance of the highway inside the transmission circle.
:
Let a = .5x
:
a^2 + 18^2 = 33^2
:
a^2 + 324 = 1089
:
a^2 = 1089 - 324
:
a^2 = 765
:
a = {{{sqrt(765)}}}
a = 27.6586 
:
x = 2*27.6586
:
x = 55.317 mi is the highway