A ladder 8ft long leans against a wall. It rests on the ground 2 ft fromt he wall. How highon the wall does the ladder reach?

Use the Pythagorean theorem to find this answer.

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT669/Student.Folders/Morris.Stephanie/EMT.669/Essay.1/Pythagorean.html

i have not been taught the pythagorean theorom. is there nay other way to solve this?

The Pythagorean Theorem is easy.

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

a= one side of a right angle triangle
b = another side of the right angle triangle
c = the long side of this triangle.

a = 2
b = ?
c = 8

2^2 + b^2 = 8^2
4 + b^2 = 64
b^2 = 60
b = 7.75

To determine how high the ladder reaches on the wall, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

In this scenario, the ladder acts as the hypotenuse of the right triangle, the distance from the wall to the base of the ladder acts as one side, and the height on the wall where the ladder reaches acts as the other side.

Let's label the distance from the wall to the base of the ladder as the "base" (b), the height on the wall where the ladder reaches as the "height" (h), and the length of the ladder as the "hypotenuse" (c).

According to the problem, the base (b) is 2 ft and the length of the ladder (c) is 8 ft.

Using the Pythagorean theorem, we have the equation:

c^2 = a^2 + b^2

Since we know that c (the length of the ladder) is 8 ft, we can substitute it into the equation:

8^2 = h^2 + 2^2

Simplifying further:

64 = h^2 + 4

Subtracting 4 from both sides:

60 = h^2

Taking the square root of both sides to isolate the height (h):

√60 ≈ 7.74597

Therefore, the ladder reaches a height of approximately 7.75 ft on the wall.