Alex has locked himself out of his house! Thankfully, there is an upstairs window open, but he needs to use a ladder to try to g
et up to the window that is 10 feet high. If Alex leans a 10-foot ladder against the side of the house so that the bottom of the ladder rests 6 feet from the base of the building, how high up the house does the ladder reach? Round your answer to the nearest tenth.
It might help to draw out what's going on. You should draw out a right triangle. We know a = 6 is one of the legs while b is the unknown leg. The hypotenuse is c = 10. Use the pythagorean theorem.
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
6^2 + b^2 = 10^2
36 + b^2 = 100
b^2 = 100-36
b^2 = 64
b = sqrt(64)
b = 8
The top of the ladder can reach 8 feet off the ground.
