McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012
MH
McGraw Hill Integrated II, 2012 View details
10. Roots and Zeros
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Exercise 62 Page 79

Begin by drawing a diagram that represents the situation. To find the length of the support, consider the Pythagorean Theorem.

About 6.93 feet

Practice makes perfect
Let's draw a diagram that represents the situation.
Let s be the length of the support. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, we can find the its length.
s^2+4^2=8^2
Evaluate
s^2+16=64
s^2=48
s=± sqrt(48)
s=± 6.92820...
s≈ ± 6.93
Because s is a measurement, it cannot be negative. Therefore, the length of the support is about 6.93 feet.