SOLUTION: The base of a ladder is 3 feet away from the wall.The top of the ladder is 9 feet from the floor. Find the length of the ladder to the nearest thousandth. help me please?

Question 78893: The base of a ladder is 3 feet away from the wall.The top of the ladder is 9 feet from the floor. Find the length of the ladder to the nearest thousandth.
help me please?
Answer by tutor_paul(519) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You first need to recognize that the ladder and the wall form a right triangle with the height=9 and the base=3. Since this is a right triangle, you can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the hypoteneuse (which is the length of the ladder.)
Pythagorean theorem says: where:
c=hypoteneuse
b=one side
a=other side
So your equation is:

Simplifying...

Take the square root of both sides...

You can simplify it a little more...

Plug that into your calculator if you want a value and you are done.
Good Luck,
tutor_paul@yahoo.com
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