Question

1. If you wanted to reach the second-floor window of the house below, where should you place the base of the ladder?

Answer 1

See Explanation

Explanation:

The question is incomplete, as there are lots of missing details in the question. To do this, I will make assumptions

See attachment for question illustration where

`y \to` the height of the second floor

`x \to` the distance where the base of the ladder is placed

`l \to` the length of the ladder

So, we are to solve for x.

Using Pythagoras theorem, we have:

`l^2 = x^2 + y^2`

Make
`x^2` the subject

`x^2 = l^2 - y^2`

Take square roots of both sides

`x = \sqrt{l^2 - y^2`

The above is the expression to calculate the base length of the ladder.

Assume

`y=50; l = 30`

So, we have:

`x = \sqrt{50^2 - 30^2`

`x = \sqrt{2500 - 900`

`x = \sqrt{1600`

`x =40`