SUSPENSION BRIDGE PROBLEM
Question of the suspension bridge The cable of a uniformly loaded suspension bridge hangs in the form of a parabola. The roadway which is horizontal and 100 m long is supported by vertical wires attached to the cable, the longest wire being 30 m and the shortest being 6 m . Find the length of a supporting wire attached to the roadway 18 m from the middle . Think of the problem as a real problem that you have to calculate the length of the wire. It is a very interesting problem that helps one to understand where mathematics is used in real life situation. It would be easy to visualize the problem if we have a diagram. So, let us draw a diagram. Now let us plot a coordinate graph for this diagram If we now solve using the coordinates of the parabola would get the answer. Let us take the point ( 50, 24 ) and solving we get Again using the point ( 18, y ) and solving we get This is the length between the point ( 18, y ) and