Problema Solution
A 20 foot ladder is leaning against a house. The distance from the bottom of the ladder to the house is 4 feet more than the distance from the top of the ladder to the ground. How far is the bottom of the ladder from the house?
Answer provided by our tutors
let bottom of ladder be x meter from wall
using Pythagoras theorem
x2 + (x+4)2 = 202
x2 +x2 +8x +16 = 400
2x2 +8x -384 = 0
x2 +4x -192 = 0
(x+16)(x-12)= 0
distance may not negative
x = 12