An 8-foot ladder is placed 3.5 feet from the base of the wall. How high up the wall will the ladder reach? Round your answer to the nearest tenth, if necessary.

About 7.2 feet.

Step-by-step explanation:

We can use the Pythagorean Theorem.

We know that the ladder is 8-feet long. So, our hypotenuse it 8.

It is placed 3.5 feet away from the base of the wall. So, our base is 3.5.

Finally, the other leg, our height, is unknown. Let this be b.

The Pythagorean Theorem is given by:

Where a and b are the legs and c is the hypotenuse.

So, substitute 3.5 for a and 8 for c. We will solve for b:

Square:

Susbtract 12.25 from both sides:

Take the square root of both sides:

Hence, the ladder reaches approximately 7.2 feet up the wall.

7.2

Step-by-step explanation:

To do this question, you can use the pythagorean therom.

b ≈ 7.2

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