Homework Help: functions

Posted by alexa on Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 5:07pm.

john's paint crew knows from experience that its 18 ft ladder is particularly stable when the distance from the ground to the top of the ladder is 5 ft more than the distance from the building to the base of the ladder. in this position, how far up the building does the ladder reach?

functions - helper, Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 5:36pm
Functions?

This is a geometry problem.

The ladder up against the wall forms a right triangle.

x = base
x + 5 = opposite side
18 = hypotenuse

Using the Pythagorean theorem,
x^2 + (5 + x)^2 = 18^2

Solve for x

5 + x = how far up the blding the ladder reaches.
functions - Reiny, Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 5:37pm
let the base be x ft
then the height is x+5 ft

solve x^2 + (x+5)^2 = 18^2

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