If you place a 41-foot ladder against the top of a 40-foot building, how many feet will the bottom of the ladder be from the bottom of the building?

Answer: 9 feet.

Step-by-step explanation: You can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve this. If the hypotenuse of the triangle = 41, and one of the legs = 40, you can solve this equation:

41^2 = 40^2 + b^2

1681 = 1600 + b^2

81 = b^2

9 = b

9

Step-by-step explanation:

The ladder is the hypotenuse, the wall is one of the legs. In order to find the other leg you have to do c^2-a^2=b^2. 41^2-40^2 is 81 and the square root of that is 9