You are ordering steel cable for a 250 foot long zip-line you are building in your back yard. The cable can be ordered in diameters with 1/16 inch increments. (1/16, 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, etc.) The manufacturer states that the cable has a Yield Stress of 108,000 psi and a Modulus of Elasticity of 10,186,000 psi. You have determined that the maximum load the cable should be able to support without exceeding the Yield Stress is 10,000 lbs.
a. What is the minimum diameter cable should you order?
