Sylvia is replacing a piece of sliding on her house. To make the 12 ft ladder stable, the bottom of the ladder needs to be 6 ft from the base or her house. Applying the Pythagorean Theorem and rounding to the nearest tenth, how high will the ladder reach so that Sylvia can replace the siding?

Answer 1

We can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve this problem.

Let's assume that the ladder reaches a height of h ft.

According to the Pythagorean Theorem, the square of the length of the ladder is equal to the sum of the squares of its horizontal and vertical components.

So, we have the equation:

h^2 = 12^2 - 6^2

h^2 = 144 - 36

h^2 = 108

h ≈ √108

h ≈ 10.4 ft

Therefore, the ladder will reach a height of approximately 10.4 ft.