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The top of a ladder rests at a helght of 15 feet against the side of a house. If the base of the ladder is o feet from the house, what is the length of the ladder? Round to the nearest foot.

The top of a ladder rests at a helght of 15 feet against the side of a house. If the-example-1
User Weibo Li
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1 Answer

5 votes

Given:

The top of a ladder rests at a helght of 15 feet against the side of a house.

So, h = 15 feet

And the base of the ladder is 6 feet from the house

so, b = 6 feet

We will find the length of the laddar, let the length of the ladder = x

So, the three sides h, b, and x form a right-angle triangle

Where the hypotenuse = x

We will use the Pythagorean theorem to find (x) as follows:


\begin{gathered} x^2=h^2+b^2 \\ x^2=15^2+6^2=261 \\ x=โˆš(261)=16.155\text{ feet} \end{gathered}

Rounding to the nearest foot.โ€‹

so, the answer will be option C. 16 feet

User Waseem Abbas
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