A ladder is leaning against a building. The distance from the bottom of the ladder to the building is 8ft less than the length of the ladder. How high up the side of the building is the top of the ladder if that distance is 4ft less than the length of the ladder
Let the distance up to where the top of the ladder is, be D
Then length of ladder = D + 4
Distance from the bottom of ladder to base of building = D + 4 - 8, or D - 4
Using Pythag, we get:
D(D - 16) = 0
D, or distance up to where the top of the ladder is = OR D = 0 (ignore)