How many feet from the base of a house must a 39 foot ladder be placed so that the top of the ladder will reach a point on the house 36 feet from the ground.
The ladder represents the hypotenuse. The distance from the ground is one of the legs.
So plug in the varaibles to the pythagorean theorem; a² + b² = c²
36² + b² = 39²
(simplified) 1296 + b² = 1521
Cancel out the 1296 by subtracting both sides, and then solve for b² by taking the square root of both sides.
b = √225 = 15
And there you go. You now know the ladder must be placed 15 feet from the house. Hope this was helpful!
