A cable of 80 meters (m) is hanging from the top of two poles that are both 50 m from the ground. What is the distance between the two poles, to one decimal place, if the center of the cable is 10 m above ground?
Waiting for someone to try to figure this out using Calculus as this is a catenary, in theory. ???? ?????ÿ
Was the cable soaked in a Viagra bath prior to the attachment to the uprights??ÿ Yeeeooowww!!!
I'm waiting for all you engineers to solve it, I can't wait. ?????ÿ
Obviously, you don't need any equations.
There could be an expression made, I suppose, just for the sake of making one.
I'll admit I found a source for the equations before looking closely at the numbers and deciding I didn't need equations.
HC??.........crickets........he's all excited about "Viagra" tonight. ?????ÿ
Not enough information.?ÿ We need to know the nominal thickness of the cable.?ÿ We also need to know the accuracy of the measurement of the poles and the ten-meter height.?ÿ Plus minus, one meter or plus minus one ten thousandth of a meter?ÿ We must also be assured that the poles are plumb and are not whopperjawed relative to the cable alignment.?ÿ What is the ambient temperature and how might that impact the overall length of the cable over time??ÿ Will the cable elongate due to it's own weight??ÿ Is the cable compressible or incompressible under normal conditions?
Facts, man.?ÿ We need the facts.
Typical engineer. Requiring all kinds of superfluous nonsense nowhere near having any relation to the original problem. It's just a wire cable, no coefficients of expansion, contraction, temperature, friction, tension, compression, nada, zilch, and that goes for all physical and spiritual interests in the whole problem including you.
@flga-2-2
I too like to watch TV programs that have Sof??a Viagra in them.?ÿ I was a little miffed when Modern Family went off the air.
My answer then is:?ÿ Whatever is the thickness of the cable involved.?ÿ Theoretically it could possibly be as much as twice the thickness of the cable involved.
Distance between the 2 poles= zero.zero meters
But the cable must be between the two posts.?ÿ Hence, the cable, itself, will prevent them from being in contact with each other.?ÿ So the answer is not zero.?ÿ To the nearest tenth of a meter would suggest 0.0 meters could be the answer unless the cable is thick enough to make the answer 0.1 meters.?ÿ If the cable were perfectly vertical then the cable going down would be in contact with the cable going up thus producing a gap of twice the cable diameter between the poles.
@holy-cow?ÿ ?ÿYour reading too much into the problem. Its more of a trick question to see if you?ÿ
can use some?ÿLogic?ÿbefore you start looking at equations to solve it.
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JOHN NOLTON
I agree with you, John.?ÿ It took me about 10 seconds to determine the obvious answer.?ÿ I didn't want to ruin the fun by posting that value in the first few minutes after the question was posted.?ÿ That's why I mentioned the catenary situation that would exist under normal conditions of a cable suspended between two posts then went on to ask for a number of things that students are trained to ignore but which can influence the answer in the real world.?ÿ I made a point to ignore the obvious flaw in the question which is the midpoint of the cable will be a bit higher than the 10 meter level that was stated.?ÿ The cable will not go straight down for 40 meters then go straight up for 40 meters as a cable must have a curved portion as it makes a bend around the midpoint, not a perfect snapping in two effect.?ÿ That's why I joked about soaking the cable in a Viagra solution followed by the painful exclamation describing the snapping in two issue.
Thanks, Math Teacher.?ÿ That makes it so simple.?ÿ Well, except for the part where very few people who haven't had to work calculus problems have even heard of hyperbolic trig functions.
I love that sort of challenge.?ÿ The only concern is that in the real world we must take into account things that may influence the answer to a problem but we are trained to ignore while doing standard textbook problems.?ÿ One example of that is a common heat transfer problem where you have a certain item made of (something specific, say a cast iron skillet) that is exposed to a temperature of 20 degrees F on one side and 2000 degrees F on the other side.?ÿ The question might ask how long it would be before the cooler side warms to a certain higher temperature.?ÿ The immediate impact on the cast iron would be an explosion in the real world.
I didn't want to ruin the fun by posting that value in the first few minutes after the question was posted.
That's the best "Cover yer ass because you didn't know the answer" excuse I've heard since "the dog ate my homework" episode. ?????ÿ
My OLD science teacher for a couple years in high school had a saying he used when we wanted to argue some point with him.?ÿ He would say, "I'll bet you a dollar to a donut hole that I'm right and you're wrong."?ÿ The guy just died a few weeks?ÿ ago, so must not have been as old as I thought.
One day this science teacher said he had a challenge for all of us.?ÿ He said that he would not answer any questions of any type so keep our mouths shut while we did what the sheet of paper he was handing to each of us told us to do.?ÿ He quickly passed them out to each of us then went to his desk and smiled contentedly for the next 15 minutes.?ÿ Soon after he passed it out you might see one then a dozen people stand up and turn around twice then sit back down.?ÿ Then you might hear them quietly attempting to spell their names backward.?ÿ So forth and so on.?ÿ Meanwhile about three people sat there quietly and appeared to do absolutely nothing but smile.
The instruction sheet started with:?ÿ Read everything carefully before doing anything.?ÿ The very last line of the instructions was to ignore everything but the first instruction on the above list and to simply write our names in the upper right hand corner of the paper. and wait for the others to finish.
Nearly everyone jumped in and did everything on the list because they ignored that first instruction that took them to the last instruction saying to do none of the above.
Trick questions are fun.?ÿ Thanks for challenging us.
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You old coot.
