Question

A youth group is setting up a camp. Rain is predicted, so the campers decide to build a fly or rain cover, over there tent. The fly will be 12 feet high and 16 get wide. The scouts are building the frame for the fly with two poles slanted and joined together at the top of the tent. The minimum length of the slanted poles needed to support the fly is what.?

Answer 1

Let x = length of each pole.

The minimum length of each pole will be such that they poles are of equal length and symmetric about the vertical axis.

Therefore, consider a right triangle with height = 12, base = 8 and hypotenuse = x.

From the Pythagorean theorem,
x^2 = 8^2 + 12^2 = 208
x = 208^0.5 = 14.42 ft

Answer: Each pole is 14.42 ft long.