Question

A 50 foot ladder is set against the side of a house so that it reaches up 48 feet. If Jack grabs the ladder at its base and pulls it 4 feet farther from the house, how far up the side of the house will the ladder reach now? (The answer is not 44 ft.) Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation: Using a right triangle as a base, we can assume the length of the bottom is 168 at the start, adding 4 feet to the base length makes it 172, and lowers the height to 47.9 using Pythagorean therom, a^2 + b^2 = c^2