Question

A window washer has an 18-ft ladder. He needs to reach the bottom of a window 16 feet of the ground. How far out from the building should the base of the ladder be? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

twice the difference of a number 8 equals 9

Answer 2

The base of the ladder should be 8.25 ft. out from the building

Explanation:

Alright, so see the attached.

Visualize it....got it?

The ladder leaning on the wall creates a right triangle, and with a right triangle, Pythagoras' Theorem is in play.

x is what we are looking for. To find x, use the Pythagorean Theorem:

a^2+b^2=c^2, or

leg^2+leg^2=hypotenuse^2

`16^2+x^2=18^2`

`256+x^2=324`

`x^2=68`

`x=√(68)` ≈ 8.25

The base of the ladder should be 8.25 ft. out from the building