Question

Nick places his 30 ft ladder against a house. If the ladder is 8 ft from the base of the house how high above the ground is the top of the ladder touching the house. Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

Answer:

The height is 28.9 ft

Explanation:

The given scenario can be shown in the figure below:

This forms a right-angle triangle.

Applying Pythagorean rule, we have:

$30^2=8^2+h^2$

Where h is how high above the ground the top of the ladder is touching the house.

Solving for h, we have:

$\begin{gathered} h^2=30^2-8^2 \\ \\ h^2=836 \\ \\ h=\sqrt[]{836} \\ =28.9 \end{gathered}$

The height is 28.9 ft