Two posts, one 11 feet high and the other 23 feet high, stand 27 feet apart. They are to be stayed by two guy wires, attached to a single stake, running from ground level to the top of each post. Where should the stake be placed to use the least wire? The function that expresses the length of the wire in terms of the distance the stake is from the 11 foot post is W(x)=x2+112+(27x)2+232\displaystyle {W}{\left({x}\right)}=\sqrt{{{x}^{{2}}+{11}^{{2}}}}+\sqrt{{{\left({27}-{x}\right)}^{{2}}+{23}^{{2}}}}.



What are reasonable values to use for x\displaystyle {x}? (What is the domain in context of the problem.)

Find the value of x\displaystyle {x}, which uses the least amount of wire.

How much wire will be used?