Question

A ladder leans against a 15-foot-tall building to form a right triangle. Theladder is placed so it is 8 feet from the base of the building. What is thelength of the ladder?OA. 161 ftOB. 17 ftO C. 13 ftOD. 289 ftBuilding15 ftLadder8 ft

Answer 1

Given the question in the image, the following are the solution steps to answer the question.

STEP 1: Label the sides of the triangle

The required length of the ladder is the hypotenuse and we can use the pythagoras' theorem to find the hypotenuse which is given below:

`hypotenuse^2=opposite^2+adjacent^2`

Write the given sides

`\begin{gathered} opposite=15ft \\ adjacent=8ft \\ hypotenuse=? \end{gathered}`

By substitution,

`\begin{gathered} hypotenuse^2=15^2+8^2 \\ hypotenuse^2=225+64=289 \\ hypotenuse=√(289)=√(17*17)=17 \end{gathered}`

Hence, the height of the ladder is 17ft