Question

A slide is 21 ft long. To get to the top of the slide, you use a vertical 9-foot high rung ladder. What is the distance, b, from the bottom of the slide to the bottom of the stairs? Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

so we know a normal slide is in roughly the shape of a triangle so we can take this problem as a triangle

Answer 2

Ahh i see.

Answer 3

we know pythagorean theorem to be \[a ^{2}+b ^{2}=c ^{2}\]

Answer 4

here we are given c and you can take the stairs to be a or b. It doesn't matter which so we plug those in and get

Answer 5

Well... It couldn't be much longer than 21ft...

Answer 6

\[a ^{2}+9^{2}=21^{2}\]

Answer 7

\[a ^{2}=441-81\]

Answer 8

\[a=\sqrt{360}\]

Answer 9

22.8 is one of my choices...

Answer 10

Helloooo?

Answer 11

=)

Answer 12

What are the other choices? :)

Answer 13

I've been looking and I'm pretty sure it's 19. =)

Answer 14

Yup. ^.^ The sq.rt. of 360 is 18.97... Round to 19. :P

Answer 15

Cool! thx