Question

Professor Torres is stucked in a burning building. He is leaning to the window on the 5th floor which is 60feets above the ground. For stability, the firefighter have to place the bottom of their ladder 15feet from the wall of the building. How long does the ladder needs to be to reach the window on the 5th floor and save professor Torres? round to 2 decimal place

Answer 1

The situation forms the right triangle above:

Where x is the length of the ladder.

Apply the Pythagorean theorem:

c^2 = a^2 +b^1

where:

c = hypotenuse = longest side = x

A &b = the other 2 legs of the triangle

Replacing:

x^2 = 60^2 + 15^2

Solve for x

x^2 = 3,600 + 225

x^2 = 3,825

x =√3,825

x = 61.85 ft