Question

A 51-foot ladder is leaning up against a building . The top of the ladder reaches the wall at a height of 50 feet . How far is the bottom of the ladder from the building ?

Answer 1

You would have a right triangle where the hypotenuse is 51. To figure out this problem we can use the Pythagorean theorem- a^2 + b^2 = c^2. so the equation should be 50^2+b^2=51^2

50^2+b^2=51^2
2500+b^2=2601
b^2=101
b=10.049875621121xx