Question

A 12 meter tall building has a ladder leaning against it. The bottom of the ladder is situated 5 meter from the building. How long is the ladder?

Answer 1

The ladder is 13 meter long.

Explanation:

Given:

Height of the building is 12 meter and the distance of the ladder from the bottom of the building is 5 meter.

Now, to find how long is the ladder, we use pythagoras theorem:

Let the height of the ladder (hypotenuse) be
`x`, height of the building (leg1) = 12 meter and distance of ladder from the bottom of the building (Leg2) = 5 meter.

Using pythagoras theorem:

`(leg 1)^(2) +(leg 2)^(2) = hypotenuse^(2)`

`12^(2) +5^(2) =x^(2)`

`144+25=x^(2)`

`169=x^(2)`

Using square root both the sides:

`13=x`

Height of the ladder = 13 meter.

Therefore, the ladder is 13 meter long.