Question:medium

A horse, a cow and a goat are tied, each by ropes of length 14 m, at the corners A, B and C respectively, of a grassy triangular field ABC with sides of lengths 35 m, 40 m and 50 m. Find the total area of grass field that can be grazed by them

Updated On: Jan 13, 2026
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Solution and Explanation

Given: Triangle \(ABC\) with side lengths \(35\,\text{m}, 40\,\text{m}, 50\,\text{m}\). A horse, cow, and goat are tethered at vertices \(A, B, C\) respectively, with equal rope lengths \(r=14\,\text{m}\). The animals graze exclusively within the triangle's boundaries.

Key idea

At each vertex, the animal grazes a circular sector with radius \(r\), defined by the triangle's interior angle at that vertex. The total grazed area is the sum of these sectors. Mathematically, the total grazed area is given by: \[ \mathcal{A} \;=\; \frac{1}{2}r^2(\angle A+\angle B+\angle C). \] Since the sum of interior angles in any triangle is \(\pi\) radians (\(\angle A+\angle B+\angle C=\pi\)), the formula simplifies to: \[ \mathcal{A} \;=\; \frac{1}{2}\,r^2\,\pi. \] In this scenario, \(r=14\,\text{m}\), and crucially, each side adjacent to a vertex is longer than \(14\,\text{m}\). This ensures that no grazed sector is limited or cut off by reaching the opposite side of the triangle.

Compute

The total grazed area is calculated as: \[ \mathcal{A}=\frac{1}{2}\times 14^2 \times \pi \;=\; \frac{1}{2}\times 196 \times \pi \;=\; 98\pi\ \text{m}^2. \] Numerically, this is approximately \(307.88\ \text{m}^2\).

Total grazed area: \(\boxed{98\pi\ \text{m}^2 \;(\approx 307.9\ \text{m}^2)}\).

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