SOLUTION: RIGHT TRIANGLE TRIGONOMETRY: The top of a 25-foot ladder is sliding down a vertical wall at a constant rate of 3 feet per minute. When the top of the ladder is 7 feet from the gro

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Question 778481: RIGHT TRIANGLE TRIGONOMETRY:
The top of a 25-foot ladder is sliding down a vertical wall at a constant rate of 3 feet per minute. When the top of the ladder is 7 feet from the ground, how far is the bottom of the ladder from the wall?
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Found 2 solutions by algebrahouse.com, stanbon:
Answer by algebrahouse.com(1659) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A right triangle is formed with a height of 7 ft (up the wall) and a hypotenuse of 25 ft (the ladder).

a² + b² = c² {the pythagorean theorem}
7² + b² = 25² {a and b are the legs and c is the hypotenuse}
49 + b² = 625 {evaluated the exponents}
b² = 576 {subtracted 49 from each side}
b = 24 {took the square root of each side}

the bottom of the ladder is 24 ft from the wall

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Answer by stanbon(75887) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The top of a 25-foot ladder is sliding down a vertical wall at a constant rate of 3 feet per minute. When the top of the ladder is 7 feet from the ground, how far is the bottom of the ladder from the wall?
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Draw the picture:::
You have a right triangle with
hypotenuse = 25 ft
height = 7 ft
base = "b" ft
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b = sqrt[25^2-7^2)
b = sqrt(576)
b = 24 ft
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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