ladder word problem

Question

a ladder is leaning against a building so that the distance from the ground to the top of the ladder is one foot less than the length of the ladder. find the length of the ladder if the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the building is 5 ft.

Answer 1

I hate to work this problem completely for you.  You need the Pythagorean Theorem.

Make a sketch.  Then the algebra becomes very simple.  And even before you do the algebra, make a guess. The solution is a well known Pythagorean triple!