Question

Two window washers, Samir and Becky, lean a ladder against the side of a building so that

Samir can wash a window while Becky holds the ladder. The top of the ladder reaches the
window, which is 3 meters off the ground. The base of the ladder is 4 meters away from the
building. How long is the ladder?

Answer 1

5 meters.

Explanation:

The side of the building and the ground makes an angle of 90°. This means that we don't need to use sine or cosine law to find for the other side.

We can just simply use the Pythagorean Theorem which is

`{a}^(2) = {b}^(2) + {c}^(2) \\ {a}^(2) = {3}^(2) + {4}^(2) \\ a = √(9 + 16 ) \\ = √(25) \\ a = 5`