A painter has a 24-foot ladder that he is using to paint a house. For safety reasons, the ladder must be placed at least 8 feet from the base of the side of the house. To the nearest tenth of a foot, how high can the ladder safely reach?

Question

Mathematics

Mona

31 May, 05:17

A painter has a 24-foot ladder that he is using to paint a house. For safety reasons, the ladder must be placed at least 8 feet from the base of the side of the house. To the nearest tenth of a foot, how high can the ladder safely reach?

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Answers (1)

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Pythagorean theorem

legnth of lader is hypotonuse (leaning against wall and wall is one leg and distance from wall to bottom of ladder is other leg)

so

a^2+b^2=c^2 where a and b are legs and c=hypotonuse

a=8

c=24

8^2+b^2=24^2

64+b^2=576

subtract 64

b^2=512

square root both sides

22.62

round to tenth

22.6

answer is 22.6 ft