a 10 foot ladder rests against the side of a house. if the bottem of the ladder is 5 ft from the base of the house on level ground about how many feet above the ground level does the top of the ladder touch the side of the house?

Question

jessica · Answer

You know that the ladder, ground and side of the house will form a triangle.  You know the length of two of the sides, and you can find the last side length by using pythagorean's theorem.  $$10^{2}=5^{2}+x ^{2}$$  Now just solve for x and that will be the height of the ladder on the side of the house.