Question

Jackson finds a cat stuck in a 20ft tree. Luckily he has a 25foot ladder. If the ladder leans against the tree leaving 6ft of space between, will it be long enough for Jackson to rescue the cat.

Answer 1

Hello!

This makes a triangle

The cat is 20 ft high

The triangle is 20 feet high

The is 6 ft between the ladder and the tree

The base is 6 ft long

You use the Pythagorean theorem to solve this


`a^(2) + b^(2) =c^(2)`

a and b are the base and height

put in the values you know


`6^(2) + 20^(2) = c^(2)`

square the numbers

36 + 400 =
`c^(2)`

Add

436 =
`c^(2)`

Take the square root of 436

20.9 = c

Since this is lower than the length of the ladder the ladder is long enough

The answer is yes

Hope this helps!