a door sill of a campus building is 8 ft off the ground. the slope is 1/9. How long is the ramp?
I got the horizontal part to be 72 ft. so 8^2+72^2=c^2. so 5248=c^2. take the square root and I get 72.4 ft. But my online homework checker says it is not correct. What am I doing wrong?

Question

a door sill of a campus building is 8 ft off the ground.  the slope is 1/9.  How long is the ramp?
I got the horizontal part to be 72 ft.  so 8^2+72^2=c^2.  so 5248=c^2. take the square root and I get 72.4 ft.  But my online homework checker says it is not correct.  What am I doing wrong?

anonymous · Answer

okay I have discovered that they want 5248 as a simplified square root answer.  How do I convert that?

anonymous · Answer

I think it is 8sqrt 82

dumbcow · Answer

you want to factor out perfect squares from 5248
since 64 is a perfect square and divides evenly into 5248
No perfect squares go evenly into 82 so you are done

$$\sqrt{5248} = 8\sqrt{82}$$