Question

Nick has a 50-foot ladder. He places the ladder 20 feet away from the base of a building. What is the distance between the base of the building and the top of the ladder, x , to the nearest foot?

Answer 1

The Pythagorean theorem is helpful here.
.. x^2 +20^2 = 50^2
.. x^2 = 2500 -400 = 2100
.. x = 10√21 ≈ 46 . . . . feet