Problema Solution

A painter has 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?

Answer provided by our tutors

Let 'h' represent the height of the ladder.

The ladder, the wall and ground make a right triangle.

Using the Pythagorean Theorem we have:

h^2 = 24^2 - 8^2

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click here to see the equation solved for h

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h = 22.63 ft

The ladder can safely reach till 22 feet high.