document.write( "Question 1173709: A 28 ft ladder is placed against a wall 19 ft high. How far away from the wall is the base of the ladder? (Draw a picture to help) Give your answer to one decimal place. \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #798999 by mila nedic(19) $\"\"$ $\"About$

You can put this solution on YOUR website!
We can use Pythagorean theorem for this type of question.
\n" ); document.write( "In the illustration we can see that the ladder, base (length of wall to ladder), and wall make a right angle triangle which we can use the theorem for to find the base.
\n" ); document.write( "The Pythagorean theorem is $\"a%5E2%2Bb%5E2=c%5E2\"$
\n" ); document.write( "In this case a is the wall, b is the base and c will always be the hypotenuse (the longest side or the side opposite of the right angle).
\n" ); document.write( "We can manipulate the theorem to find the base or b. So we want to find b which we can do by changing $\"a%5E2%2Bb%5E2=c%5E2\"$ to $\"b=sqrt%28c%5E2-a%5E2%29\"$ . Now we can input the numbers: $\"b=sqrt%2828%5E2-19%5E2%29\"$
\n" ); document.write( "b=20.6 ft rounded to the nearest tenth.
\n" ); document.write( "Therefore the wall is 20.6 ft from the ladder at the base. \n" ); document.write( "

\n" );