SOLUTION: A 13 ft ladder is leaning against a wall . The distance from the top of the ladder to the bottom of the wall is 7 ft more than the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the wal

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Question 1133893: A 13 ft ladder is leaning against a wall . The distance from the top of the ladder to the bottom of the wall is 7 ft more than the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the wall. Find the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the wall.
Found 2 solutions by algebrahouse.com, MathTherapy:
Answer by algebrahouse.com(1659) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A right triangle is formed with one leg of 7 ft and the hypotenuse being 13 ft.

Use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the length of the other leg.

Pythagorean Theorem
a² + b² = c²
a and b are the legs
c is the hypotenuse

7² + b² = 13² {substituted into Pythagorean Theorem}
49 + b² = 169 {evaluated exponents}
b² = 120 {subtracted 49 from each side}
b = √120 {took square root of each side}
b ≈ 10.95

Distance from bottom of ladder to wall is approximately 10.95 ft.

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Answer by MathTherapy(10551) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

A 13 ft ladder is leaning against a wall . The distance from the top of the ladder to the bottom of the wall is 7 ft more than the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the wall. Find the distance from the bottom of the ladder to the wall.

The other person's answer is WRONG, so IGNORE it!
With the hypotenuse (ladder's length) being 13, and the LONGER leg being greater than the shorter by 7, we get a classic 5-12-13 Pythagorean triple.
This means that the side being sought, or the shorter leg =