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

Question

3 years ago

14

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.

Mathematics

2 answers:

jasenka [17] · Answer 1 · 2022-04-11T05:41:05+03:00

<h3>Answer: 8 feet</h3>

Explanation:

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.