a spotlight is mounted on the eaves of a house 12 feet above

Question

a spotlight is mounted on the eaves of a house 12 feet above the ground. a flavor bed runs between the house and the sidewalk, so the closest the ladder can be placed to the house 5 feet. how long a ladder is needed so than an electrician can reach the place where the light is mounted. the lenght of the latter needs to be ___ ft

Answer 1

This is a Pythagorean theorem problem. Draw the right triangle. One leg is 5 ft. The other leg is 12 ft

 

The hypotenuse is the length of the ladder

 

L^2=5^2+12^2

 

L=13 ft