Question

You are going to use an incline plane to lift a heavy object to the top of a shelving unit with a height of 7 ft. The base of the incline plane is 11 ft from the shelving unit. What is the length of the incline​ plane?

Answer 1

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve this problem. Let's call the length of the incline plane "L". We know that the height of the shelving unit is 7 ft and the base of the incline plane is 11 ft. The hypotenuse of the right triangle formed by the incline plane, the floor, and the shelving unit will be the length of the incline plane. Using the Pythagorean theorem:

L^2 = 11^2 + 7^2

L^2 = 121 + 49

L^2 = 170

L = sqrt(170)

So the length of the incline plane is approximately 13.04 feet.