A taut telephone wire extends from the top of a 24-foot tall telephone pole to a stake in the ground 10 feet away. A bug crawled from the stake in the ground up the wire to the top of the telephone pole. Then the bug crawled down to the bottom of the pole and back to the stake. How far did the bug crawl?

Question

Mathematics

Saul Hancock

20 December, 13:47

A taut telephone wire extends from the top of a 24-foot tall telephone pole to a stake in the ground 10 feet away. A bug crawled from the stake in the ground up the wire to the top of the telephone pole. Then the bug crawled down to the bottom of the pole and back to the stake. How far did the bug crawl?

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Answers (1)

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Sydnee Frye · Answer 1

The distance the bug crawled will be estimated using the length of the wire which is given by Pythagorean theorem

c^2=a^2+b^2

a=24, b=10

thus

c^2=24^2+10^2

c^2=576+100

c^2=676

thus

c=26 ft

since the spider crawled the distance twice, total distance the spider crawled was:

26*2=52 ft