Answer:
a) 10 yards and 10[tex]\sqrt{3}[/tex] yards
Step-by-step explanation:
The intersection of the support beams in the middle form four right angles, since all four sides are equal. Because you know two angles of the triangle on the right hand side (90° and 30°), you can calculate the third angle (given that a triangle has 180°):
180°-90°-30° = 60°
This is a 30-60-90 triangle (if you don't know what that is, you can look it up). In a 30-60-90 triangle, the hypotenuse is 2x. In this case, the hypotenuse is 10 yards, so you can set up an equation given that information:
2x = 10
x = 5
Now that you know x of the 30-60-90 triangle, you can solve for the other two sides of the triangle.
The side directly across from the 30° angle is just x, which is equal to 5. The side directly across from the 60° angle is x[tex]\sqrt{3}[/tex], which in this case would be 5[tex]\sqrt{3}[/tex].
Because you want the full length of both beams, you'd multiple both sides by two to get the length of both entire beams:
5*2 = 10
(5[tex]\sqrt{3}[/tex])*2 = 10[tex]\sqrt{3}[/tex]
*I hope this makes sense!*