Question

When you stand twenty-five feet from the circular base of a structure, your distance to a point of tangency with the base is forty feet. Find the radius of the base.

a) 44.5 ft
b) 39 feet
c) 19.5
d) 31.2

Answer 1

By the Pythagorean theorem:

\(\Large r^2 + 40^2 = (r + 25)^2\)

Solve for r.