Answer:
14.42 feet
Explanation:
In the figure, we can see that the pole form a right triangle with legs equal to 12 feet and 8 feet, where 8 ft is half the wide or 16 ft/2 = 8 ft.
Then, by the Pythagorean theorem, the length of the slanted pole square is equal to the sum of the square of the legs, so
[tex]x^2=12^2+8^2[/tex]Where x is the minimum length of the slanted pole. Therefore, x is equal to
[tex]\begin{gathered} x^2=144+64 \\ x^2=208 \\ x=\sqrt[]{208} \\ x=14.42 \end{gathered}[/tex]Therefore, the answer is 14.42 feet.