Question

A painter has a 24-foot ladder that he is using to paint a house. For safety reasons, the ladder must be placed at least 8 feet from the base of the side of the house. To the nearest tenth of a foot, how high can the ladder safely reach?

Answer 1

pythagorean theorem
legnth of lader is hypotonuse (leaning against wall and wall is one leg and distance from wall to bottom of ladder is other leg)

so
a^2+b^2=c^2 where a and b are legs and c=hypotonuse

a=8

c=24
8^2+b^2=24^2
64+b^2=576
subtract 64
b^2=512
square root both sides
22.62
round to tenth
22.6

answer is 22.6 ft