Draw a graph and identify the position of the stop signs.
1200 feet
Practice makes perfect
The diagram below illustrates the curve of the road.
The x-axis represents sea level, and the two red points are the positions where the engineers want to put a stop sign.
To find the distance between these two stop signs, we need to solve a quadratic equation.
0.00005x^2-0.06x=0
Since there is no constant term in this quadratic, we can use the Zero Product Property to solve it.
The two x-intercepts of the graph are (0,0) and (1200,0).
The distance between these these two points is 1200.
The civil engineers will place the stop signs at a horizontal distance of 1200 feet.
