Geometry Mathematics

Question

Patricia leaned 52 foot ladder against the side of a building. the base of the ladder is 23 feet from the base of the building. the top of the ladder is 10 feet from the top of the building. How tall is the building? provide an answer accurate to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

Hi Rae F

Does your picture show that once you have calculated the missing side of your right triangle formed by leaning the 52 ft ladder against the side of the building with the base of the ladder 23 ft away from the base of the building on the ground that you still need to add 10 ft to whatever you get for the missing side?

You should be able to use the pythagorean theorem on to calculate the missing side, then just add 10 to it.

Do you have a right triangle with 10 extra ft of wall sticking up on the missing side?

I know this poses more questions than answers but if we could see your diagram maybe we could help more.

I do hope this gives you an idea of what might be missing in the work that you did if not please write back.