16. A cable of a suspension bridge hangs in the form of a parabola, the Supporting towers of the cable being 300 meters apart.

Question

over the supporting towers at a height of 60 meters above the roadwayand the lowest point of the cable is 5 meters above the roadway. Find
the lengths of the vertical supporting rods from the cable to the road. way at intervals of 50 meters from the center of the bridge to a supporting tower.

Answer 1

draw a diagram. If we put the vertex of the parabola at (0,5) then we have

y = ax^2 + 5
y(150) = 60

now you can find a, and then work on

y(0), y(50), ... y(150)