A flagpole has a height of 21 yards It will be supported by

A flagpole has a height of 21 yards. It will be supported by three cables, each of which is attached to the flagpole at a point 5 yards below the top of the pole and attached to the ground at a point that is 12 yards from the base of the pole. Find the total number of yards of cable that will be required. The flagpole will be supported by a total of yards of cable. (Round to the nearest whole number as needed.)

Solution

1. So, you have 21 yard flagpole. 3 cables from 5 yards below top of flagpole to ground
12 yards from the flagpole base.

Trignometrically, the cable start at a height of 21-5=16 yards

Now we will apply the pythogaoras theorm , because the setup is a right trianle and we know sides of this right triangle other than the hypotensue( length of cable)

So, length of each cable = sqrt(16^2+12^2) = 4*5=20 yards.

Since there are 3 cables we require 3*20 =60 yards of cable.