David wants to find the height of a building. He places his 32 feet ladder against the very top of the building. David then measures the base of the building to his ladder which is 17 feet. How tall is the building? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. the building is about?

Answer 1

Using the ladder, the height of the building can be found using the Pythagorean theorem, which states that the square of the hypotenuse (the ladder) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides (the height of the building and the base of the building).

Let the height of the building be 'h'.
By using the Pythagorean theorem: h^2 + 17^2 = 32^2
Simplifying the equation: h^2 + 289 = 1024
Subtracting 289 from both sides: h^2 = 735
Taking the square root of both sides: h ≈ √735 ≈ 27.1

Therefore, the height of the building is approximately 27.1 feet.