Question

A spotlight is mounted on the edge of a house 14 feet above the ground. A flower bed runs between thehouse and the sidewalk, so the closest a ladder can be placed next to the house is 5 feet. How long of a ladder isneeded so that an electrician can reach the place where the light is mounted? (Give a two-decimal placeapproximation)

Answer 1

Solution

For this case we can use the following formula:

$a^2+b^2=c^2$

and for this case a= 14ft and b = 5ft then we can find the hyphotenuse like this:

$14^2+5^2=221$

Solving for c we got:

$c=\sqrt[]{221}=14.87ft$