Question

A 25ft ladder is placed 7 feet from the wall, as shown. How high up the wall with the ladder reach?

Answer 1

Answer:

24 ft up the wall

Step-by-step explanation:

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve, letting the 25 ft ladder be the hypotenuse

a^2 +b^2 = c^2

7^2 +b^2 = 25^2

49 + b^2 = 625

Subtract 49 from each side

49-49 +b^2 = 625-49

b^2 = 576

Take the square root of each side

sqrt(b^2) = sqrt(576)

b = 24

We only take the positive solution since length cannot be negative

The ladder will reach 24 ft up the wall