Question

Borrow a ladder from one of your neighbors. There's a bush along the edge of the house, so you'll have to place the ladder

13 feet from the house. What length of ladder do you need to reach the window?

Answer 1

To find the ladder length needed to reach a window when placed 13 feet from the house, measure the height of the window, then use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the length of the ladder as the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle formed by the height of the window and the distance from the house.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the length of the ladder required to reach a window when it is placed 13 feet from the house, we can use the Pythagorean theorem. This theorem states that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides. Here, the ladder is the hypotenuse, the distance from the ground to the window is one side, and the distance from the house to the foot of the ladder is the other side.

Step-by-step explanation to find the ladder length:

1. Measure the height from the ground to the window (let's call this value 'h' feet).
2. Apply the Pythagorean theorem: (Ladder length)^2 = h^2 + (13ft)^2, where h is the height from the ground to the window, and 13ft is the distance from the house to the base of the ladder.
3. Solve for the ladder length by taking the square root of the sum of squares: Ladder length = sqrt(h^2 + 169).
4. The result will give you the minimum ladder length required to reach the window safely.

Without knowing the height of the window, we cannot calculate the specific ladder length needed.