Question

Ray is a contractor that needs to access his clients roof in order access whether the roof needs to be replaced. He sees that he can access a portion of the roof that is 15 feet from the ground. He has ladder that is 20 feet long.

Answer 1

The ladder will be 13.23 feet from the wall

Explanation:

Given

`L = 20ft` -- Length of ladder

`H = 15ft` --- height of the wall

Required

The distance of the ladder

The ladder forms a right triangle with the wall and the length is the hypotenuse.

So, we make use o Pythagoras theorem.

`L^2 = H^2 + B^2`

Where

B is the base distance

So, we have:

`20^2 = 15^2 + B^2`

`400 = 225 + B^2`

Collect and solve like terms

`B^2 = 175`

Square noth sides

`B=13.23`