how high up on the building will a 15ft. ladder reach if the foot of the ladder is placed set from the building

Question

lukebluefive · Answer

How far away from the building is the ladder's base?

anonymous · Answer

how high up on the building will a 15ft. ladder reach if the foot of the ladder is placed 5ft 
from the building

anonymous · Answer

sorry set is 5ft

lukebluefive · Answer

Using the Pythagorean Theorem, given two sides of a right triangle, you can find the length of the other side:
$$side_1^2 + side_2^2 = hypotenuse^2$$
In this case, we have:
$$5^2 + side^2 = 15^2$$
Rewritten:
$$side^2 = 15^2 - 5^2$$
Subtracting:
$$side^2 = 200$$
Taking the square root of both sides:
$$side = \sqrt{200}$$