Student-Professor Duo Solves “Hanging Cable” Problem
Mathematics student Neil Chatterjee and Mathematics professor Dr. Bogdan Nita recently teamed up on a YouTube video, discussing their solution to the “hanging cable” problem.
Posted in: Faculty and Student Research
Work done by mathematics student Neil Chatterjee and Mathematics professor Dr. Bogdan Nita was recently featured in a YouTube video. The video discussed their solution to the “hanging cable” problem, a problem famous for its inclusion in Amazon job interviews. The problem states: a cable of 80 meters is hanging from the top of two poles that are both 50 meters from the ground. What is the distance between the two poles, to one decimal place, if the center of the cable is (a) 20 meters above the ground or (b) 10 meters above the ground?
The video was inspired by Neil and Dr. Nita’s paper, The Hanging Cable Problem for Practical Applications, in which they investigated several solution strategies. The paper was published in the Atlantic Electronic Journal of Mathematics. Great work Neil and Dr. Nita!