a 32 foot ladder is placed 12 feet from the wall

Question

a 32 foot ladder is placed 12 feet from the wall. how far up the wall will the ladder reach?

Answer 1

Note that you have a right triangle with a hypotenuse of 32 and a base of 12. Then by Pythagoras' theorem, the height must be

h = √(32² - 12²) ft = ? ft