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A latter leans agains the side of a house.The top of the ladder is 24ft from the ground. The bottom of the lAdder is 7ft from the side of the house. Find the length of the ladder.

1 Answer

4 votes

Answer:

25 feet

Explanation:

You can superimpose a triangle in this situation. The height from the ground to the top of the ladder along the wall is one leg of the triangle, the distance the ladder is from the wall is the other leg, and the length of the ladder is the hypotenuse.

Use Pythagorean theorem to solve, which is a² + b² = c² where a, and b are the legs, and c is the hypotenuse...

We have

7² + 24² = c²

49 + 576 = c²

625 = c²

25 = c

*Tecnhically the answer is ±25, but it's a length, so we disregard the negative answer.

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