Question

a women has a ladder that is 13 ft long. if she sets the base of the ladder on level ground 5ft from the side of a house, how many feet above the ground will the top of the ladder be when it rests against the houlad

Answer 1

It is convenient to remember that 5-12-13 is a Pythagorean triple.

Her ladder is 12 ft above the ground where it rests on the house.

_____
Using the Pythagorean theorem, you are given the hypotenuse as 13 ft and one leg as 5 ft. Then the other leg is
.. √(13^2 -5^2) = √(169 -25) = √144 = 12