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?

1 answer

You can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve this problem.

Let x be the length of the ladder needed to reach the window.

The ladder, the house, and the ground form a right triangle. The ladder is the hypotenuse, the height from the ground to the window is the opposite side, and the distance from the base of the ladder to the house is the adjacent side.

Using the Pythagorean theorem:
x^2 = 10^2 + 25^2
x^2 = 100 + 625
x^2 = 725
x = √725
x ≈ 26.92

Therefore, you would need a ladder that is approximately 26.92 feet long to reach the window.