A fence 8 feet tall runs parallel to a tall building at a distance of 6 feet from the building.
What is the length of the shortest ladder that will reach from the ground over the fence to the wall of the building?
I answered the same type of question back in 2009
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1245646756
Just change the numbers.
To find the length of the shortest ladder that will reach from the ground over the fence to the wall of the building, we can use the concept of a right triangle. The ladder will form the hypotenuse of the triangle, and we can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve for its length.
Let's denote the length of the ladder as 'L'. We can consider the distance from the ground to the top of the fence as the height of the triangle, which is 8 feet. The distance from the fence to the wall is the base of the triangle, which is 6 feet.
According to the Pythagorean theorem, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (L) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides of the triangle. In this case, it can be represented as:
L^2 = 8^2 + 6^2
Simplifying the equation:
L^2 = 64 + 36
L^2 = 100
To solve for L, we take the square root of both sides:
L = √100
L = 10
Therefore, the length of the shortest ladder that will reach from the ground over the fence to the wall of the building is 10 feet.