Question

A painter leans a 20 foot ladder against a house so that it touches the house 11 feet from the ground. How far from the base of the house does the ladder rest on the ground?

Answer 1

This problem involves using the Pythagorean Theorem which is a^2+b^2=c^2

We already have the values of a and c, but b is unknown. So we plug in: 11^2+b^2=20^2

121+b^2=400

b^2=279

b=sqrt(279)

b=16.7

So the answer is about 16.7 ft

Hope this helped!