Question

A 20-ft ladder is placed against the side of a house. The bottom of the ladder is 12 feet from the house. How high up will the ladder reach on the wall?

Answer 1

Use Pythagorean theorem to solve this problem.

`a^(2)\ +\ b^(2)=c^(2)\\\\b^(2)=20^(2)-12^(2)\\\\b^(2)=400-144\\\\\sqrt{b^(2)} =√(256)\\\\b=16\ ft`

The ladder will reach 16 ft up the wall.