SOLUTION: How far from the base of the house do you need to place a 15-foot ladder so that it exactly reaches the top of a 12-foot tall wall?

Question 858462: How far from the base of the house do you need to place a 15-foot ladder so that it exactly reaches the top of a 12-foot tall wall?
Answer by ben720(159) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Because the wall and the ground are at a 90� angle to each other, those two are the legs, and the latter is the hypotenuse. To find the ground, first, we must use the pythagorean theorem:

Next, plug in known values:

Square:

Subtract 144 from both sides:

Square Root both sides

The wall is 9 ft from the ground.
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