SOLUTION: I am not good at all with word problems and need some help The base of a ladder is 10 ft away from the wall. The top of the ladder is 11 ft from the floor. Find the length o

Algebra ->  Radicals -> SOLUTION: I am not good at all with word problems and need some help The base of a ladder is 10 ft away from the wall. The top of the ladder is 11 ft from the floor. Find the length o      Log On


   

Question 91231: I am not good at all with word problems and need some help


The base of a ladder is 10 ft away from the wall. The top of the ladder is 11 ft from the floor. Find the length of the ladder to the nearest thousandth.
Thamks a million
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
We basically have this triangle set up:



Since we can see that the triangle has legs of 11 and 10 with a hypotenuse of c, we can use Pythagoreans theorem to find the unknown side.


Pythagoreans theorem:

a%5E2%2Bb%5E2=c%5E2 where a and b are the legs of the triangle and c is the hypotenuse



11%5E2%2B10%5E2=c%5E2 Plug in a=11, b=10, and c=c. Now lets solve for c


1+2+1+%2B+1+0+0+=++c++%5E+2 Square each individual term



2+2+1+=++c++%5E+2 Combine like terms


s+q+r+t+%28+2+2+1+%29+=+s+q+r+t+%28++c++%5E+2+%29 Take the square root of both sides


So c approximates to...
14.8660687473186=+c

Which means our answer is
c+=+14.8660687473186

which is c+=+14.866 to the nearest thousandth