What’s the answer

Question

A ladder is leaning against a vertical wall. The distance from the top of the ladder to the base of the wall is 23 feet. The distance from the base of the wall to the bottom of the ladder is 8 feet. What is the length of the ladder? Provide an answer accurate to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

Draw the picture to help you visualize. According to the description, the long leg of the triangle created by the ladder, wall and the ground (straight vertical leg) is 23 ft. The short horizontal leg is 8 ft. This is a right triangle, so we will use the Pythagorean theorem to find the hypotenuse's length, which is the ladders length.

23 squared = 23 × 23 = 529

8 squared = 8 × 8 = 64

529 + 64 = c squared

Square root of 593 = 24.4. Ft

Answer 2

Draw a right triangle with vertical side of length 23 and horizontal side of length 8. Let L be the length of the ladder (length of hypotenuse).

By the Pythagorean Theorem, L² = 23² + 8².

L² = 593 So, L = √593 ft