We are given that the town of Foxton lies 10 miles north of an abandoned east-west road, which runs through Grimley. The point on the abandoned road closest to Foxton is 30 miles from Grimley. The problem provides the following cost information:

• Restoring the abandoned road costs $100,000 per mile.
• Building a new road costs $200,000 per mile.
• The total budget is $5.8 million.

We need to find:

1. How much of the abandoned road should be used.
2. The cost of building a direct road connecting the towns.

1. Using the abandoned road

The goal is to find how much of the abandoned road (denoted as $x$ miles) should be restored. The remaining section, the new road (denoted as $y$ miles), would connect Foxton to the point on the abandoned road closest to it.

From the problem setup, the total cost is:

$100,000x + 200,000y = 5,800,000$

First, we recognize that the two distances $x$ (abandoned road section) and $y$ (new road section) form a right triangle, with:

• The horizontal leg being $30 - x$ miles.
• The vertical leg being 10 miles.

Thus, by the Pythagorean theorem:

$y = \sqrt{(30 - x)^2 + 10^2}$

Now, we substitute this into the total cost equation:

$100,000x + 200,000\sqrt{(30 - x)^2 + 10^2} = 5,800,000$

To make the units consistent, we'll divide the entire equation by 100,000:

$x + 2\sqrt{(30 - x)^2 + 100} = 58$

We now solve this equation for $x$.

2. Cost of a direct road

The distance of a direct road connecting Grimley to Foxton can be found using the Pythagorean theorem:

$\text{Distance} = \sqrt{30^2 + 10^2} = \sqrt{900 + 100} = \sqrt{1000} = 31.62 \text{ miles}$

The cost of building this road at $200,000 per mile is:

$\text{Cost} = 200,000 \times 31.62 = 6,324,000 \text{ dollars}$

In millions of dollars, this is:

$6.324 \text{ million dollars} \approx 6.3 \text{ million dollars}$

Summary of Answers:

1. To determine how much of the abandoned road should be used, solve the equation $x + 2\sqrt{(30 - x)^2 + 100} = 58$.
2. The cost of building a direct road is approximately $6.3 million.

Would you like to go over the steps to solve for $x$ in more detail?

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Relative questions:

1. How would the problem change if the cost per mile for the new road increased?
2. What would happen if Foxton were located further from the abandoned road?
3. How does using the Pythagorean theorem help in solving real-world road-building problems?
4. What if the budget was reduced? How would it affect the use of the abandoned road?
5. How would the solution change if the terrain caused the new road to be more expensive?

Tip: Always verify which distance formulas apply when combining straight and angled roads.