If you place a 28-foot ladder against the top of a 15-foot building, how many feet will the bottom of the ladder be from the bottom of the building? Round to the nearest tenth of a foot.
To solve this problem, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse (the longest side) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
In this case, the ladder is the hypotenuse of the right triangle, with the building as one side and the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the ground as the other side.
Let's call the length of the side from the bottom of the ladder to the ground as "x". According to the Pythagorean theorem:
x^2 + 15^2 = 28^2
x^2 + 225 = 784
x^2 = 559
x ≈ √559
x ≈ 23.7
Therefore, the bottom of the ladder will be approximately 23.7 feet from the bottom of the building (rounded to the nearest tenth of a foot).