A flagpole is supported by A wire fastened 50 Feet from its base. The wire is 10 Feet longer Than the height it reaches on the flagpole. Find the length of the wire.

Question

radar · Answer

|dw:1447803061028:dw| A drawing sometimes helps.  Is this helping?

radar · Answer

You can use the pythagorean theorem, which simply states that the hypotenuse squared is equal to the sum of each leg squared.

radar · Answer

Lets do that:
50 squared is 2500
x squared is x^2
$$(x + 10)^{2}=x ^{2}+20x+100$$
We can now write the equation:$$x ^{2}+2500=x ^{2}+20x+100$$Subtract the x squared from both sides.  You now have 2500 = 20x + 100    Now subtract 100 from both sides, getting:
20x = 2400   Solve for x   then solve for the length of the wire (x + 10).

anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much for your help radar, but where I get confused is the part where 20x is written into the equation?

anonymous · Answer

By the way radar you seem really good at this stuff I would really appreciate if you help me solve this problem:
The public swimming pool, which is a rectangle measuring 31 meters by 22 meters, needs a new deck. The deck of uniform width that will surround the pool will be made of concrete. There is only enough money in the budget to cover 2720 square meters with concrete. How wide should the path be?

anonymous · Answer

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