Question

a ladder (with dr. who on the rungs) is to reach over a fence 8 feet high to a wall one foot behind the fence. this will allow dr. who access to a window where a dastardly student awaits to drop a calculus book on his head. what is the length of the shortest ladder that can be used? assume a black cat will be beneath the ladder.

Answer 1

The length of the shortest ladder that can be used is approximately 8.0623 feet.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the length of the shortest ladder that can be used to reach a window on the wall one foot behind an 8-foot high fence, we can use the Pythagorean theorem.

The ladder, the fence, and the wall form a right triangle, with the ladder as the hypotenuse. Let's represent the length of the ladder as 'L'.

According to the Pythagorean theorem, the length of the ladder can be found using the equation:

L^2 = (8^2) + (1^2).

Solving this equation will give us the value of L, which represents the length of the shortest ladder.

Using the equation L^2 = 64 + 1 = 65, we can find the square root of 65 to determine the length of the ladder.

The square root of 65 is approximately 8.0623.

Therefore, the length of the shortest ladder that can be used is approximately 8.0623 feet.