The Mt Washington Cog Railway Civil engineers calculate the

The Mt. Washington Cog Railway. Civil engineers calculate the slope of roadbed as the ratio of the distance it rises or falls to the distance it runs horizontally. They call this ratio the grade of the roadbed, usually written as a percentage. Along the coast, commercial railroad grades are usually less than 2%. In the moun-tains, they may go as high as 4%. Highway grades are usually less than 5%. The steepest part of the Mt. Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire has an exceptional 3 7.1% grade. Along this part of the track, the seats in the front of the car are 14 ft above those in the rear

Solution

I am assuming that we are finding the distance between the front and rear seats....

Let this distance be \'x\'

Seats in the front are 14 ft above those are in the rear, so the rise = 14

And then run = x

So, we have the equation :

slope = rise / run

Slope given as 37.1%, which is just 0.371

We get :

0.371 = 14/run

run = 14/0.371

run = 37.735849 meters -----> ANSWER

So, the distance between the front and rear seats is : 37.735849 meters