Question

A camper attaches a rope from the top of her tent, 4
feet above the ground, to give it more support. If she stakes the rope to the ground 6
feet from the middle of her tent, about how long is the rope from the ground to the tent?

An image shows the tent, the staked rope, and the measurements as a right triangle. The height of the triangle is 4 feet. The base of the triangle is 6 feet. The hypotenuse is unknown.

Answer 1

Use the Pythagorean theorem. If the vertical height is 4 ft and the horizontal distance is 6 ft, the rope length r is

r = sqrt(4^2 + 6^2) = sqrt(16 + 36) = sqrt(52) = 2√13 ≈ 7.21 ft.

So the rope is about 7.2 feet long.