Homework Help: math word problems

Posted by lin on Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 12:40am.

A ladder is leaning against a building. The distance from the bottom of the ladder to the building is 9 ft less than the length of the ladder.how high up the side of the building is the top of the ladder if that distance is 2 ft less than the length of the ladder? the ladder reaches ___ ft up the wall.

math word problems - bobpursley, Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 9:50am
Isn't this an application of the Pythagorean theorem?

(ladder)^2=(height^2 + (base)^2
but ladder=height+2
and base=ladder-9 or base=height+7

(h+2)^2=(h^2)+(h+7)^2
solve for h.

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