Question

A ladder 50 dm long when set against the wall of a house just reaches a window at a height of 48 dm. How far is the lower end of the ladder from the base of the wall?

Answer 1

14dm

Explanation:

To solve this question we can use the Pythogorean theorem

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

In this case, The ladder is the hypotenuse, the height is one of the leg of the right angle triangle

Let's keep the missing side as x

If we apply the theorem,

x^2 + 48^2 = 50^2

x^2 + 2304 = 2500

x^2 = 2500 - 2304

x^2 = 196

`x = √(196) \\ x = 14`