Problem (5)

How much higher or lower can one end of a suspended 100 ft tape be held and still meet a distortion of 1/10,000 or better? Ignore the effects of pull, sag, and temperature.

Solution

The horizontal distance for the non-level tape would be 100.00-1/10,000 = 99.9999 ft (carrying additional sig fig to minimize rounding errors)

Sketch:

Solve for e

One end may be up to 0.14 ft higher or lower than the other.