Question

If you place a 32-foot ladder against the top of a 23-foot building, how many feet will the bottom of the ladder be from the bottom of the building? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

22.2 feet

Explanation:

Treat the ladder, building, and the ground between the bottom of the ladder and the building as the legs of a right triangle.

Then, you can use the Pythagorean Theorem.

X^2 + Y^2 = Z^2

The ladder is the "diagonal" side, so it is the hypotenuse, Z.

It doesn't particularly matter whether the building is X or Y; the end result will be the same.

Therefore:

(23)^2 + Y^2 = (32)^2

Y^2 = (1024 - 529) = 495

Y = 22.249; rounded to the nearest tenth, 22.2 feet

I hope this helped! :)