Question

A ​17-foot ladder is placed against a vertical wall of a​ building, with the bottom of the ladder standing on level ground feet from the base of the building. How high up the wall does the ladder​ reach?

Answer 1

Answer:

15 feet..

taking base as 8m

Given: ladder = 17 m and base = 8 m

The ladder forms a right triangle with the base of 8 m, the wall will be 15 m and the ladder (hypotenuse) is 17 m.

Let’s say you did not know that this was a standard 8–15–17 right triangle.

This is how you can figure it out:

hypotenuse(h)22 = side2112 + side2222

Let side11 = base and side22 = wall

1722 = 822 + wall22

wall = 172−82−−−−−−−√172−82

wall = 289−64−−−−−−−√289−64

wall = 225−−−√225

wall = 15 feet