Question

You are going to use an incline plane to lift a heavy object to the top of a shelving unit with a height of 5 ft. The base of the incline plane is 15 ft from the shelving unit. What is the length of the incline​ plane?

Answer 1

15.8 ft

Explanation:

The inclined plane, the base of and the shelving unit form the shape of a right angled triangle.

The hypotenuse is the length of the inclined plane, h.

The base of the triangle is 15 ft.

The height of the triangle is 5 ft.

To find the hypotenuse, h, we have to use Pythagoras rule:

`h^2 = a^2 + b^2`

where a = height of the triangle

b = base of the triangle

Therefore:

`h^2 = 5^2 + 15^2\\\\h^2 = 25 + 225 = 250\\\\h = √(250)\\ \\h = 15.8 ft`

The inclined plane is 15.8 ft long.