Question

A 35 foot ladder is placed against a vertical wall of a building, with the bottom of the ladder standing on level ground 28 feet from the base of the building. How high up the wall does the ladder reach?

Answer 1

Given the information on the problem, we can draw the following right triangle:

we can find how high the ladder reach using the pythagorean theorem:

`\begin{gathered} (35)^2=(28)^2+h^2 \\ \Rightarrow h^2=(35)^2-(28)^2=1225-784=441 \\ \Rightarrow h=\sqrt[]{441}=21 \\ h=21ft \end{gathered}`

therefore, the ladder reaches 21 ft high up on the wall