Question

You are going to use an incline plane to lift a heavy object to the top of a shelving unit with a height of 8 ft. The base of the incline plane is 9 ft from the shelving unit. What is the length of the incline​ plane?

Answer 1

Check the picture below.

`\begin{array}{llll} \textit{using the pythagorean theorem} \\\\ c^2=a^2+o^2\implies c=√(a^2 + o^2) \end{array} \qquad \begin{cases} c=hypotenuse\\ a=\stackrel{adjacent}{9}\\ o=\stackrel{opposite}{8} \end{cases} \\\\\\ c=√( 9^2 + 8^2)\implies c=√( 81 + 64 ) \implies c=√( 145 )\implies c\approx 12.04~ft`