Question

A ladder leans against a building forming an angle of 50° with the ground. The base of the ladder is 8 feet from the building. What is the length of the ladder?

Answer 1

The correct answer is 12.446 feet.

Explanation:

A ladder leans against a building forming an angle of 50° with the ground.

The base of the given ladder is 8 feet away from the building.

Let the length of the ladder that is to be found be x feet.

Thus we find the cosine of the angle of inclination.

∴ cos 50° =
`(8)/(x)`

⇒ x = 12.446 feet

Therefore the length of the ladder is 12.446 feet.