Question

A 30 feet ladder is leaning against the wall. The top of the ladder is resting 25 feet on the building. How far is the base of the ladder away from the bottom of the building?

Answer 1

16.58 feet

Explanation:

a² + b² = c²

Think of this as a right triangle

The hypotenuse is 30, and one of the legs is 25

To find the other leg, subtract the square of the hypotenuse by the square of the given leg

30² - 25² = leg

900 - 625 = 275

Square root the answer to find the length of the missing leg

√275 = 16.583123951777

The leg is 16.58 ft.