Question

Mr. Morgan is leaning a ladder against the side of his house to repair the roof. The top of the ladder reaches the roof, which is 3 meters high. The base of the ladder is 2 meters away from the house, where Mr. Morgan's son is holding it steady. How long is the ladder? If necessary, round to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

this is a math problem that involves using the Pythagorean theorem. The ladder, the roof and the ground form a right triangle, where the ladder is the hypotenuse and the roof and ground are the legs. The length of the ladder can be found by using this formula:

ladder^2 = roof^2 + ground^2

Plugging in the given values, we get:

ladder^2 = 3^2 + 2^2

ladder^2 = 9 + 4

ladder^2 = 13

To find the length of the ladder, we need to take the square root of both sides:

ladder = sqrt(13)

Using a calculator, we can approximate this value as:

ladder ≈ 3.6

Rounding to the nearest tenth, we get:

ladder ≈ 3.6 meters

Therefore, the ladder is about 3.6 meters long.

Explanation: