Question

A painter has a 24 foot ladder that he is using to paint a house.for safety reasons the ladder must be placed at least 8 feet from the base of the side of the house.To the nearest tenth of a foot how high can the ladder safely reach?

Answer 1

this is a pythagorean theorem problem. 24 is the whole ladder, and if you draw it out, is a hypotenuse. 8 is a leg.  a^2+ b^2 = c^2. so 8^2 + b^2 = 24^2

b^2 = 512, so b = sqrt(512) = 22.6