Finding the lenght of a wire strung between two posts, as shown...

[mathbadme]

Hello, everyone!

I'm having trouble solving a certain breed of problem and I'm hoping someone here could help me. The type of problem is below in two examples, but I'll focus on the left one (I'll want to tackle the right on my own):



In the left case solving for side EF isn't an issue for me- I just set up a proportion between triangle ABC and FED to discover side ED and then use the Pythagorean Theorem to find side EF. What is stumping me is how to solve for side BE. I'm a bit stumped!

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[Deleted member 4993]

Hello, everyone!

I'm having trouble solving a certain breed of problem and I'm hoping someone here could help me. The type of problem is below in two examples, but I'll focus on the left one (I'll want to tackle the right on my own):

View attachment 8041View attachment 8042

In the left case solving for side EF isn't an issue for me- I just set up a proportion between triangle ABC and FED to discover side ED and then use the Pythagorean Theorem to find side EF. What is stumping me is how to solve for side BE. I'm a bit stumped!

Thank you in advance for your help!

Proportional theorem works for similar triangles. Is it given to you that triangles ABC and FED are similar? (The problem statement does NOT include that).

If that assumption (or given) of similarity is true then calculate ED through proportionality → calculate (ED - BC) → invoke Pythagoras and calculate BE.