A short-wave radio antenna is supported by two guy wires, 135 ft and 155 ft long. Each wire is attached to the top of the antenna and anchored to the ground, at two anchor points on opposite sides of the antenna. The shorter wire makes an angle of 61° with the ground. How far apart are the anchor points? (Round your answer to the nearest foot.)

Question

cannah · Answer

HELP due at  11:59 pm

rhystic · Answer

so first find the distance of the shorter wire to the attenna which the wire makes a triangle because one part is at the top of the attenna and the second is at the ground creating a 61 degree angle (this is the hypotenuse of the right triangle). the horizontal component of this would be cos so   135cos(61) =  length of shorter cable to attena.    Now find the attenas height by using the vertical component of the triangle  which is sin so 135(sin61)  = ?  This gives you the height of the antenna. You now have two peices of the other triangle (the hypotenuse and one side) use pythagreas theorom to find the length of the longer cable to the anttena. (a^2 + b^2 = c^2 so  :    a^2 + (height of antenna)^2 = 155^2 and solve for a . after you have a, add a with the first distance you found (135 cos(61) ) and that is your answer.