Question

The bottom of a ladder must be placed 5 feet from a building the ladder is 14 feet long how far above ground does the ladder touch the wall round to the nearest tenth one decimal place?

Answer 1

Using the Pythagorean theorem, the height at which a 14-foot ladder touches the wall is approximately 13.1 feet when the base of the ladder is 5 feet away from the building.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking about the height at which the ladder will touch the wall, given its length and the distance from the base of the wall. We can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the solution. By setting up the equation ladder_length2 = distance_from_wall2 + height_above_ground2, and plugging in the values of 14 feet for the ladder's length and 5 feet for the distance from the wall, we can solve for the height above ground.

142 = 52 + height_above_ground2
196 = 25 + height_above_ground2
171 = height_above_ground2
height_above_ground = √171
height_above_ground ≈ 13.0767 feet

When rounded to the nearest tenth, the height above ground is 13.1 feet.