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28 votes
28 votes
A 25 foot ladder leans against the side of a house. The base of the ladder is 12 ft. from the house on level ground. Find, to the nearest foot, the distance from the top of the ladder to the ground.

A 25 foot ladder leans against the side of a house. The base of the ladder is 12 ft-example-1
User Adrian Hall
by
3.0k points

1 Answer

6 votes
6 votes

ok

To solve this problem, I'll use the Pythagorean theorem


\text{ c}^2=a^2+b^2

c = 25

a = 12

b = x


\begin{gathered} \text{ b = }\sqrt[]{c^2-a^2} \\ \text{ b = }\sqrt[]{25^2-12^2} \\ \text{ b = }\sqrt[]{625\text{ - 144}} \\ \text{ b = }\sqrt[]{481} \end{gathered}

Result

b = 21.93 rounding to the nearest foot

b = 22 ft this is the distance.

User Fernando Wittmann
by
2.7k points
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