A ladder leans against a vertical wall. The top of the ladder is 8 m above the ground. When the bottom of the ladder is moved 2 m farther away from the wall, the top of the ladder rests against the foot of the wall. What is the length of the ladder?

Name: A ladder leans against a vertical wall. The top of the ladder is 8 m above the ground. When the bottom of the ladder is moved 2 m farther away from the wall, the top of the ladder rests against the foot of the wall. What is the length of the ladder?
Uploaded: Oct. 18, 2021, 5:06 p.m.
Duration: 1 min 51 s
Description: A ladder leans against a vertical wall. The top of the ladder is 8 m above the ground. When the bottom of the ladder is moved 2 m farther away from the wall, the top of the ladder rests against the foot of the wall. What is the length of the ladder?

Solution

When the ladder is moved 2 m away from the wall, the top of the ladder rests against the foot of the wall. So, the hypotenuse is 2 m more than the second side of the right triangle. The other non-hypotenuse side is 8 m. So, $$8^2 + x^2 = (x+2)^2$$

=> x = 15 m and length of the ladder = x+2 = 17 m