Name:__________________________

Date:______________________

Service Tower Problem

Adapted from Module 2: Worksheet 6 in Precalculus: Pathways to Calculus
1. You are considering buying a house that is located at the intersection
of D street and 23rd Avenue. Your cell phone provider is building a cell
phone tower at the intersection of B street and 20th Avenue. Each
street is located one mile apart. If you are farther that 3.5 miles away
from the cell phone tower, you will not have good reception.
a. What quantities do you need to find to determine if you will have
good reception at the house? Illustrate these quantities on the
figure below.

b. Use the figure above to measure the quantities that are needed
to determine the distance of the cell tower from the house to
decide if the house will have good cell coverage. Label these
quantities on the illustration above.

c. Define two variables (that represent the values of two quantities)

that can be used to determine the distance of any house from
the tower.

Name:__________________________
Date:______________________

d. Use the variables defined in (c) above to determine a formula for

finding the distance of any house from the tower.

e. If a house is located at (x 1 , y 1) and a cell tower is located at

( x 2 , y 2) modify the formula in part (d) above to determine the
distance d of the house from the cell tower. Explain how you
would calculate the variables indicated in part d.

2. Consider a cell phone tower whose location is represented by the point

(-2, 4) on the coordinate plane and whose radius of cell coverage is 3
miles. What does the circle represent in the figure below? What does it
mean for a point that is within the circle? What about if the point is out
side of the circle?

a. A point (x, 2), southeast of the tower is on the service boundary

of this cell tower. What is the value of x?

Name:__________________________
Date:______________________
b. Let (x, y) be any point on the boundary of the cell tower. Alter the
formula you created in part 1e to write a formula tht represents
the distance of any house from the cell tower located at (-2, 4).