a 15 foot ladder is leaning against a house with the base of the ladder 4 feet from the house. How high up the house does the ladder reach? round to the nearest tenth foot.

Pythagorean Theorem:

4^2 + b^2 = 15^2

Solve for b.

That helped. Thankyou Ms.Sue

You're welcome, Katie.

correct

To find out how high up the house the ladder reaches, we can use the Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean theorem states that in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the longest side) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

In this case, the ladder acts as the hypotenuse of the right triangle, the base of the ladder is one side, and the height up the house is the other side. Let's call the height up the house "h".

So, according to the Pythagorean theorem, we have:

(h^2) + (4^2) = (15^2)

Simplifying:

h^2 + 16 = 225

Subtracting 16 from both sides:

h^2 = 209

To find the value of "h," we need to take the square root of both sides:

√(h^2) = √209

Now, using a calculator or a math tool, we find that √209 is approximately 14.45.

Therefore, the height up the house that the ladder reaches is approximately 14.45 feet (rounded to the nearest tenth foot).