A bridge is sketched in the coordinate plane as a parabola represented by the equation h=40-0.01x^2, where h refers to the height, in feet, of the bridge at a location of x feet from the middle of the bridge. The bridge starts and ends at the x-intercepts of the parabola. What is the length of this bridge?
Do not round your answer until your end result. When finding the length of the bridge round to the nearest tenth of a foot.
To find the length of the bridge, we first need to find the x-intercepts of the parabola by setting h=0:
0 = 40 - 0.01x^2
0.01x^2 = 40
x^2 = 4000
x = ±√4000
x = ± 63.25
So, the bridge starts at x = -63.25 feet and ends at x = 63.25 feet.
The length of the bridge is the distance between these two points, which is 63.25 + 63.25 = 126.5 feet.
Therefore, the length of the bridge is 126.5 feet.