Question

A 20 foot ladder leans against a house the base of the ladder is 12 feet from the house. What is the distance from the ground to the top of the ladder?

Answer 1

Answer 16

Explanation:

Answer 2

16ft

Explanation:

Please see attached diagram depicting the above scenario.

Since the ladder leans against a house, then it forms a right angled triangle while the hypothenus is 20 foot, the distance of the base of the ladder is 12 feet from the house, hence we are required to find the point at which the ladder touches the house I.e height, rep by h.

We will apply Pythagoras theorem to solve the problem.

h^2 = 20^2 - 12^2

h^2 = 400 - 144

h^ 2 = 256

h = √256

h = 16ft

Hence, the distance from the ground to the top of the ladder is 16ft.