First you start by drawing a right triangle. the longest side is the length of the ladder (40ft) and will be represented by variable c. Label the vertical side as a and the horizontal side as b(24 ft).
we will use a^2 +b^2 =c^2 to find it. plug in the variables and it will be a^2 + 24^2 = 40^2 which simplifies to a^2 + 576 = 1600. you then isolate the variable by subtracting 576 from 1600. our new equation is a^2 = 1024. we take the sqrt of a^2 and 1024 so our final equation is a=32 ft. the answer is 32 feet.
