Homework Help: Math

Posted by Marco on Monday, December 17, 2012 at 8:03pm.

A 20 meter ladder is leaning against a house.The bottom of the ladder is 15 meters away from the house. How far, to the nearest tenth, is the top of ladder from the ground?
Do I multiply 20,x 15?
I don't know how to do the problem

Math - Ms. Sue, Monday, December 17, 2012 at 8:07pm
Since you're trying to find one leg of a right triangle, you need to use the Pythagorean Theorem. The ladder is the hypotenuse of this triangle.

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

15^2 + b^2 = 20^2

225 + b^2 = 400

b^2 = 175

b = 13.228 = 13.2 meters

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