Thread: Grade 11 High School Circles Question

I really do not understand how to do this:

"An athlete uses a sling to throw a projectile at a target 15m away. He spins the sling in a circle above his head, then releases the projectile. If the sling is 1 m long, at what distance from the target must the athlete release the projectile so that it will hit the target?"

Answer: ~14.97m

My only problem is that I have no idea how the answer book came up with that number!

Hello, s3a!@

It took me a while to catch on . . .

An athlete uses a sling to throw a projectile at a target 15m away.
He spins the sling in a circle above his head, then releases the projectile.
If the sling is 1 m long, at what distance from the target must the athlete
release the projectile so that it will hit the target?

Answer: ~14.97m

Code:

              * * *    B
          *           *
        *           /   * o
       *           /1    *    o
                  /               o
      *          /        *           o
      *         * - - - - * - - - - - - - o C
      *         A         *  15

       *                 *
        *               *
          *           *
              * * *

The athlete is at .
The target is at
The sling is 1 meter long: .

When the projectile is released at , it flies off tangent to the circle.
. . Hence: .

We want the distance

From Pythagorus: .

Therefore: . m.

Ok thanks for the help! I get a large chunk of it now but I still have minor confusion. What I am confused with is how do you know/assume that we have the hypotenuse and base of the right triangle? Like what I was thinking is 15m-1m or even just 15m. Like can you break down the words a little bit more? Sorry if I am asking for too much.