Jaquira wanted to set a ladder against the house to change a light above the garage. the ladder was 19 feet long, and reached the light, which was 7 feet above the ground. what was the distance from the base of the ladder to the house? round to the nearest tenth.

Step-by-step explanation:

Draw a right triangle as the one shown attached.

In order to calculate the distance from the base of the ladder to the house, you can use the Pythagorean Theorem:

Where "a" is the hypotenuse and "b" and "c" are the legs of the triangle.

Solving for one of the legs:

You can notice that:

Therefore, substituting values into , you get that the distance from the base of the ladder to the house, rounded to the nearest tenth, is: