Legs of Tripod

The legs of a tripod can extend to 5ft. What is the maximum possible
distance between the ends of the two legs?

The legs of a tripod can extend to 5ft. What is the maximum possible
distance between the ends of the two legs?

Click to expand...

Always draw yourself a picture -- in this case a top view (looking down) on the tripod. Assume equal angles between all three legs. What's the angle? If you draw a line connecting the ends of two of the legs, you'll create a triangle. You know the lengths of two sides of the triangle and the angle between them. You can use the Law of Cosines. Alternatively, you might notice that this is an isosceles triangle. Therefore, you know all the angles. You can use the Law of Sines. You can also split in into two right triangles and solve it that way.

Okay

I can use the law of cosines. Thanks for the tips.

Hello, Janet!

The legs of a tripod can extend to 5 ft.
What is the maximum possible distance between the ends of two legs?

Click to expand...

If the legs can be positioned freely, spread two them so they are 180^o apart.
Then the ends are 10 feet apart.

Most tripods are designed to keep the feet in an equilateral triangle.
Open the tripod completely and lay it flat on the ground.
We have an equilateral triangle with 5-foot 'radii' from the center to the vertices.
Then, as wjm suggested, use the Law of Cosines to find the side of the triangle.