5. You're locked out of your house and the only open window is on the second floor, 25 feet above the ground. You need to borrow a ladder from one of your neighbors. There's a bush along the edge of the house, so you'll have to place the base of the ladder 10 feet from the house. What length of ladder do you need to reach the window?

Question

5.	 You're locked out of your house and the only open window is on the second floor, 25 feet above the ground. You need to borrow a ladder from one of your neighbors. There's a bush along the edge of the house, so you'll have to place the base of the ladder 10 feet from the house. What length of ladder do you need to reach the window?

Draw a picture:

Solve:

GPT 3.5 · Answer

Using the Pythagorean theorem (a² + b² = c²), we can find the length of the ladder needed.

Let x be the length of the ladder, 10 feet be the distance from the base of the ladder to the house (a), and 25 feet be the height of the window above the ground (b).

10² + 25² = x²
100 + 625 = x²
725 = x²
√725 ≈ 26.93

Therefore, you would need a ladder about 26.93 feet long to reach the window from the base of the ladder.