A painter leans a 15 ft ladder against a house. The base of the ladder is 5 ft from the house. a) To the nearest tenth of a foot, how high on the house does the ladder reach? b) The ladder in part (a) reaches too high on the house. By how much should the painter move the ladder's base away from the house to lower the top by 1 ft?

Question

Reiny · Accepted Answer

oops I checked my math again and that final answer should have been 7.23 ft, not 14.555

Reiny · Answer

You must be studying the Pythagorean Theorem.

Did you make a diagram?
make the ladder the hypotenuse of 15, the height as h, and the base as 5

then solve h^2 + 5^2 = 15^2

b) take the answer from a), reduce the height by 1 and do a new equation.

(I got a base of 14.555 for b) )

Anonymous · Answer

8-foot ladder leaning a wall and make 53 degree angle

jesus · Answer

pretty sure the answer is MILK