Kali has a 6 meter ladder that she wants to use to get her cat out of a tree. She puts the base of the ladder 2 meters away from the base of the tree.
How high into the tree will the ladder reach?
Round your answer to the nearest tenth of a meter.
We can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the height the ladder will reach. Let the height be x:
6^2 = 2^2 + x^2
36 = 4 + x^2
x^2 = 32
x = sqrt(32) ≈ 5.7 meters
Therefore, the ladder will reach about 5.7 meters (rounded to the nearest tenth of a meter) into the tree.