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The base of a 15-ft ladder is 5 ft away from a wall. How high from the floor is the top of the ladder?

User Williamsi
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1 Answer

3 votes
Answer:
Distance from the top of the ladder to the floor = 14.14 ft

Step-by-step explanation:
The ladder forms a right-angled triangle with the floor and the wall where:
The ladder is the hypotenuse = 15 ft
The distance between the ladder and the wall is the base = 5 ft
We will use the Pythagorean theorem to get the third side of the triangle which represents the distance between the top of the ladder and the floor as follows:
15^2 = 5^2 + distance^2
Distance^2 = 225-25 = 200
Distance from the top of the ladder to the floor = sqrt(200) = 14.14 ft

Hope this helps :)
User Carpics
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