A 25 feet ladder is placed 20 feet away from a lamp post. Find the height of the lamp post.

15 feet
14 feet
17 feet
23 feet

1 answer

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the height of the lamp post.

Let the height of the lamp post be h.

According to the Pythagorean theorem,
(25 feet)^2 = (20 feet)^2 + h^2

625 = 400 + h^2
225 = h^2

Taking the square root of both sides, we get:
h = ±15

Since the height of a lamp post cannot be negative, we can conclude that the height of the lamp post is 15 feet.

Therefore, the correct answer is 15 feet.