A circular park of radius 20m is situated in a colony. Three boys Ankur, Syed and David are sitting at equal distance on its boundary each having a toy telephone in his hands to talk each other. Find the length of the string of each phone.

Solution:

First, draw a diagram according to the given statements. The diagram will look as follows.

Here the positions of Ankur, Syed and David are represented as A, B and C respectively. Since they are sitting at equal distances, the triangle ABC will form an equilateral triangle.

AD ⊥ BC is drawn. Now, AD is median of ΔABC and it passes through the centre O.

Also, O is the centroid of the ΔABC. OA is the radius of the triangle.

OA = 2/3 AD

Let the side of a triangle a metres then BD = a/2 m.

Applying Pythagoras theorem in ΔABD,

AB2 = BD2+AD2

⇒ AD2 = AB2 -BD2

⇒ AD2 = a2 -(a/2)2

⇒ AD2 = 3a2/4

⇒ AD = √3a/2

OA = 2/3 AD

20 m = 2/3 × √3a/2

a = 20√3 m

So, the length of the string of the toy is 20√3 m.