Find the shortest length of wire needed in ft

Question

A 123 ft tower is located on the side of a mountain that is inclined 36° to the horizontal. A guy wire is to be attached to the top of the tower and anchored at a point 41 ft downhill from the base of the tower. Find the shortest length of wire needed.

Answer 1

First, I assume the tower is vertical.

Now draw a figure.& use the law of cosines

c² = 41² + 123² - 2*41*123 cos 144°

Where c is the length of the wire.

You do the arithmetic..