Question

An electric pole has a support cable that is attached to the pole 20 ft. from the

ground. The cable is anchored on the ground 10 ft. from the base of the pole.
How long is the cable? Round to the nearest tenth. (1 point)
500 ft.
22.4 ft.
○ 17.3 ft.
○ 300 ft.

Answer 1

[AI-generated answer — Bot GPT 3.5]

To find the length of the cable, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

Let x be the length of the cable. The support cable, the 20 ft height from the pole, and the length from the base to the anchor form a right triangle.

Using the Pythagorean theorem:

x^2 = 20^2 + 10^2
x^2 = 400 + 100
x^2 = 500
x = sqrt(500)
x ≈ 22.4 ft

Therefore, the length of the cable is approximately 22.4 ft. Rounded to the nearest tenth, the answer is 22.4 ft.

So, the correct answer is: 22.4 ft.