Answer:
What we need to do is visualize what the problem says. We know there's a tower of 100 feets which has a support cable at the top which measures 140 feet, and we need to calculate how far from the tower is the cable anchored.
What we need to do is using the Pythagorean Teorem, as we have a rectangular triangle (we assume the tower is vertical).
We know the hypotenuse is 140 feets, as it's the lenght of teh cable, and one of the triangle sides is 100 feets, as it's the tower height.
As the Pythagorean Teorem says [tex]a^2 + b^2 = c^2[/tex] (being c the hypotenuse)
We can now replace on [tex]a^2 + b^2 = c^2[/tex] the numbers we have [tex]100^2 + b^2 = 140^2[/tex]
Now, we solve [tex]100^2 + b^2 = 140^2[/tex] by operating:
[tex]100^2 + b^2 = 140^2[/tex]; [tex]b = \sqrt{140^2-100^2}[/tex]; b = 98
Now, we know the cable is 98 feets far from it
