Question

1. Joshua has a ladder that is 12 ft long. He will lean the ladder against a vertical wall. For safety reasons, he wants the angle the ladder makes with the ground to be no greater than 75°. Is it possible for Joshua to lean the ladder against the wall so that the top of the ladder is at least 11.8 ft above the ground? Show your work and draw a diagram to support your answer.

Answer 1

leaning the ladder against the vertical wall will create a right angle so you can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the missing length.