GEOMETRY QUESTIONS FROM FUTURES II:
TEACHER'S GUIDE TO PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
GEOMETRY
4. The cellular telephone system used by car phones and hand-held portables is
made up of a subscriber set (the mobile telephone itself), a mobile telephone
switching office (MTSO) and a radio cell site with radio antennas (the radio
cell site is the location which receives and relays radio signals between
phones). The radio antenna picks up your call and send it to the MTSO, which
then connects you with your regular home phone.
a. If a cellular radio antenna can provide good coverage for an area with a 5 mile
radius, how may total square miles can it serve?
b. If a city is 25,000 square miles in size, how many cellular radio antennas are
required to cover the entire city?