If you place a 35-foot ladder against the top of a 31-foot building, how many feet will the bottom of the ladder be from the bottom of the building? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.

1 answer

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve this problem. Let x be the distance from the bottom of the building to the bottom of the ladder. Then we have:

x^2 + 31^2 = 35^2

Simplifying the right side, we get:

x^2 + 961 = 1225

Subtracting 961 from both sides, we get:

x^2 = 264

Taking the square root of both sides, we get:

x ≈ 16.2

Rounding to the nearest tenth of a foot, we get:

x ≈ 16.2 feet

Therefore, the bottom of the ladder will be about 16.2 feet from the bottom of the building.