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Joe is a carpenter and needs a ladder long enough to reach to a second story window that is 17 ft. from the ground. If he sets the ladder three feet from the base of the building, to the nearest tenth of a foot, how tall must the ladder be in order to reach the frame of the window? Explain your answer.

triangle - left side 17 feel, bottom 3 feet, right side - ladder

A- 17.3 ft
B- 16.7 ft
C- 20 ft
D- 25 ft

Answer :

Answer = A - 17.3 ft

Using Pythagorean theory to find the hypotenuse (diagonal line of the triangle)
a^2 + b^2 = c^2

We know the length of the two legs on the right triangle, a=17, b=3
17^2 + 3^2 = c^2
298 = c^2
take square root of both sides
17.26 rounded to 17.3 ft

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