🔍 Key Concepts

• Catenary curve of an anchor chain and how water depth and chain tension affect its length • Relationship between vertical depth, horizontal distance, and the total curve length • Unit consistency: kips (kilo‑pounds) and feet, and how they relate to typical catenary formulas

💭 Think About

• Think about whether the chain is nearly straight or has a significant sag with 170 kips of tension in 500 feet of water—would the actual length be only slightly more than 500 feet or several times greater? • Consider a simple geometric check: for any curved line between two points, how does its length compare to the straight‑line distance between them? • Look at the answer choices and ask: which ones are realistic for a mooring line in 500 feet of water under high tension—are we looking at roughly 2–3 times the depth, or much more?

✅ Before You Answer

• Make sure you understand that the catenary length must be greater than the water depth (500 feet), and cannot be less. • Check which options are reasonable multiples of 500 feet for a tensioned mooring chain (e.g., about 2.5–3.5 times the depth). • Before choosing, eliminate any option that would imply an unrealistically short or excessively long chain for a drilling unit moored in 500 feet of water under 170 kips of tension.