Question

Kali has a 6 meter ladder that she wants to use to get her cat out of a tree. She puts the base of the ladder 2 meters away from the base of the tree. How high into the tree will the ladder reach?

Answer 1

Answer:

The ladder will reach 5.6 meters high.

Step-by-step explanation:

The tree, the ground and Kali's ladder form a triangle whose hypotenuse $h$ is the ladder, base $b$ the ground, and perpendicular $p$ the tree. Thus from Pythagorean theorem:

$p^2+b^2=h^2$

Since $b=2$ and $h=6$

$p=\sqrt{h^2-b^2} =\sqrt{6^2-2^2}=\boxed{5.6\:meters.}$

Thus the ladder will reach 5.6 meters high.

Answer 2

Answer: 5.7

Step-by-step explanation: