A ladder is placed 4 feet from the base of a building. The ladder reaches a height of 12 feet. What is the length of the ladder? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. Explain your answer.
A ladder is placed 4 feet from the base of a building. The ladder reaches a height of 12 feet. What is the length of the ladder? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. Explain your answer.
Use Pythagoras's Theorem, which says: The square of the Hypotenuse=The sum of the squares of the other two sides. Since we have the value of the other two sides, therefore:
H^2=4^2 + 12^2
H^2=16 + 144
H^2=160 take the square root of both sides, and we have:
H=sqrt(160)
H=~12.65 feet-Length of the ladder.