SOLUTION: A cat is stuck 24 feet up in a tree and the firefighters are going to place the bottom of the ladder 18 feet from the base of the tree. How long must the firefigers make the ladder

Question 1093809: A cat is stuck 24 feet up in a tree and the firefighters are going to place the bottom of the ladder 18 feet from the base of the tree. How long must the firefigers make the ladder?
Note that the ground is level and round your answer to the nearest whole number.
Can someone please help explain how to set this problem? Thanks!
Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If you assume that the tree is perfectly vertical,
then the ladder and tree form a right triangle
with 2 of the sides given. You have to find the
3rd side, which is the ladder.
Use the Pythagorean theorem.
Let = the length of the ladder.

The ladder must be 30 ft long
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Note that this is actually a 3-4-5 trangle:

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