June 14, 2021 11:23 am
Topic starter
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A ladder 20 feet long is placed against a wall. If the distance on the ground from the wall to the ladder is 12 feet, how many feet up the wall does the ladder reach?
1 Answer
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June 14, 2021 11:23 am
Topic starter
The wall forms a right angle with the ground, so the triangle is a right triangle. The length of the ladder is the hypotenuse of the triangle. Next, look at the numbers given in the problem and notice that 12 = 4 x 3 and 20= 4 x 5. The lengths of the sides of this triangle are multiples of the basic 3:4:5 triangle. The missing length is 4 x 4=16.