Question

from the top of a flagpole 48 ft in height, two 60-ft ropes reach two points on the ground, each of which is 36 ft from the pole. if the ground is level, is the pole perpendicular to the ground? i need some explaination too

Answer 1

Yes it is. What you have is/are special right triangles. 3-4-5 triangles actually. These triangles occur only when you have a right angle and the legs are 3-4 or 4-3. By the pythagorean theorem, you get 5 as the hypotenuse. Multiply all of those by 12 and you get your lengths of 48, 60 and 36. Hope that makes sense.