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22 votes
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O RIGHT TRIANGLES AND TRIGONOMETRY
Word problem involving the Pythagorean Theorem
3000 as
Madisyn V
A 13-ft ladder leans against the side of a house. The bottom of the ladder is 10 ft from the side of the house. How high is the top of the ladder from the ground?
If necessary, round your answer to the nearest tenth.

User Yick Leung
by
2.9k points

1 Answer

22 votes
22 votes

Answer:

8.3 ft

Explanation:

You want the height of the top of a 13 ft ladder whose base is 10 ft from the side of a house.

Pythagorean theorem

The ladder represents the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs of 10 ft and the height up the side of the house.

a² +b² = c² . . . . . . . . Pythagorean relation

a² +10² = 13² . . . . . . . known values filled in

a² = 169 -100 = 69 . . . . subtract 10²

a = √69 ≈ 8.3 . . . . . . . . . . . take the square root

The top of the ladder is about 8.3 feet from the ground.

= O RIGHT TRIANGLES AND TRIGONOMETRY Word problem involving the Pythagorean Theorem-example-1
User Roni Castro
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