This is really confusing

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 feet

Answer 1

Draw a picture. Let x be the length of the ladder.

Then use the Pythagorean Theorem on the right triangle 5² + (x - 1)² = x²

Multiply it out to get:

25 + x² - 2x + 1 = x²

Subtract x² from both sides to get:

25 - 2x + 1 = 0 and combine like terms to solve for x