Question

Greg has a 15 foot ladder. He needed to clean his gutters which are 12 feet high from the ground. How far away does Greg need to place the ladder from the base of the house to reach the gutters

Answer 1

Base = 81 feet

Explanation:

Given that,

Length of the ladder = 15 foot

Greg needed to clean his gutters which are 12 feet high from the ground.

We need to find how far away does Greg need to place the ladder from the base of the house to reach the gutters. Let it is b.

Here, hypotenuse = 15 feet, height = 12 feet and base = b

We can use Pythagoras theorem to find b.

`b^2+h^2=H^2\\\\b^2=H^2-h^2\\\\b^2=15^2-12^2\\\\b^2=225-144\\\\b=81\ \text{feet}`

So, the ladder should be placed at a distance of 81 feet from the base of the house to reach the gutters.