SOLUTION: A ladder is leaning against a wall. the base of the ladders 4 feet away from the wall and the top touches the wall at 8 feet from the floor. Derive an expression for a line that

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Question 773649: A ladder is leaning against a wall. the base of the ladders 4 feet away from the wall and the top touches the wall at 8 feet from the floor. Derive an expression for a line that that somehow represents the distance from the floor to someone's foot standing on the ladder (i.e. the same as the height of a particular part of the ladder) as a function of his/her distance from the wall.
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Represent the contact points of the ladder on a cartesian coordinate system. Use positive x and y axes. Let y be the vertical position on the ladder and x represent the horizontal position on the ladder. Your given information translates into (4,0) and (0,8). The ladder is sloped at and the y-intercept, where the top of the ladder contacts the wall, is b=8. The slope-intercept form for the equation is effectively the function for position upward on the ladder.