Question

A ladder that is 14 feet long is placed against a building. The bottom of the ladder is 6 feet from the base of the building.

A right triangle with side length 6 feet, hypotenuse 14 feet, and side h.

In feet, how high up the side of the building is the top of the ladder? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.


12.65

Answer 1

12.6 ft

Explanation:

Using Pythagoras' identity in the right triangle

let h be height up the side of the building , then

h² + 6² = 14²

h² + 36 = 196 ( subtract 36 from both sides )

h² = 160 ( take the square root of both sides )

h =
`√(160)` ≈ 12.6 ft ( to the nearest tenth )