Question

A slide is 21 feet long. To get to the top of the slide, you use a vertical 9-foot high rung ladder. What is the distance, b, from the bottom of the slide to the bottom of the stairs? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. A. 30 B. 19 C. 15 D. 22.8

Answer 1

For this you will use a^2+b^2=c^2

So 21 would be your c^2 and 9 your b^2 so now it'll look like this 

A^2+9^2=21^2

A^2+81=441

next you move the 81 over so you subtract 81 from both sides and you're left with 

A^2=360

after you get the square root so a=18.9

and rounded you're answer would be B. 19 feet 

Hope this helped :)