Question

A 16 foot ladder rests against the side of a house and the base of the ladder is 4 feet away. How high above the ground is the top of the ladder? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.

Answer 1

15.5 ft

Explanation:

The geometry of the problem can be modeled by a right triangle with hypotenuse 16 ft and one side length of 4 ft. If x represents the height of the ladder on the building, then the Pythagorean theorem tells us ...

x^2 + (4 ft)^2 = (16 ft)^2

x^2 = 240 ft^2 . . . . . . subtract 16 ft^2

x ≈ 15.5 ft . . . . . . . . . . take the square root

The top of the ladder is about 15.5 ft above the ground.