<PRE><B>Question 778481</B>
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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