Question

Leo placed a ladder against the back of his store building to paint a sign. The top of the ladder was 9 feet above the ground and the bottom of the ladder was 3 feet from the base of the building. What is the length, to the nearest tenth of a foot, of the ladder?

Answer 1

You’ll want to draw a triangle if you imagine the ladder leaning against the building it forms a right triangle with height “a” being the distance from the ground to the window, and the hypotenuse “c” being the length of the ladder. We want to solve for base “b” and the distance between the foot of the ladder and the building
Recall the Pythagorean theory
a^2 + b^2 = c^2

Answer 2

9.5 feet is the length of the ladder.