The cable has to rise 2000 feet over a horizontal distance of 5000 feet. The cable would be the hypotenuse of a triangle with those sides, if it were a straight line. However, the cable will have to sag a lot due to its weight and that of the car.
This is not a well thought out problem.
The answer they probably are looking for is
sqrt[(2000)^2 + (5000)^2]
one mountain is 5000 ft high and can be reached by cable car from another mountain 7000ft away
the other mountain is 3000ft high
what is the lenghtof the cableto link the two mountains
1 answer