What is the distance?

Question

Public wheelchair ramps are required to adhere to a slope of 1:12. Which means that for every 1 inch of rise the horizontal run must be 12 inches. The vertical distance from the ground to the platform is 1 1/2 feet.

1. What will the distance x in feet need to be to meet ADA guidlines?
2. If the ramp is raised to 2 feet how much longer does distance x need to be?
3. Your teams has a ramp that is 12 feet long at the base, how high does a platform need to be to be able to use the ramp and meet ADA guidelines?

Answer 1

You need to begin with a diagram. If you look at this as a 2D diagram, the ramp forms a right triangle with the ground and the vertical height. The ramp is the hypotenuse. The height is 1 1/2 feet. That is the rise, the run = 12 times the rise. This will give you run. you then have 2 legs of a right triangle. Using the pythagorean theorem: Rise² + Run² = x² , where x is the length of the ramp.