a steel pipe is being carried down a 9ft wide hallway. at the end of the hall there is a 90 deg. turn into a narrower 6 ft wide hallway. what is the max length of the steel pipe so it could be carried horizontally

Question

across · Answer

Find the length of the blue line.

anonymous · Answer

i got an equation using that picture from using similar triangle proportions. its just the derivative is killing me.  i have it as a t^2 = x^2 +(9x/x-6)^2

anonymous · Answer

@across ¿cómo se dice: Una línea que pase a través de dos puntos?

across · Answer

"a line that passes through two points"

across · Answer

cbarbour, are you using calculus for this?

anonymous · Answer

Thank you very much =)

anonymous · Answer

yes

across · Answer

What length are you getting? Do you know what the answer is?

anonymous · Answer

no answer yet.. when i work out the equation i posted for the derivative, it is exceptionally a pain in the butt...

anonymous · Answer

so im unsure of my math is correct.

across · Answer

Hmm, I didn't think of solving this problem using calculus. Are you required to? I could see how you'd do that, though.

anonymous · Answer

optimization is the subject of this chapter

anonymous · Answer

|dw:1325284068306:dw|  my drawing im using