Two window washers, ian and caleb , lean a ladder against the side of a building so that ian can wash a window while caleb holds the ladder. the top of the ladder reaches the window, which is 15 feet off the ground. the base of the ladder is 8 feet away from the building. how long is the ladder? a. 18 feet b. 16 feet c. 17 feet d. 15 feet

C. 17 feet

Step-by-step explanation:

This problem allows us to use the Pythagorean theorem to solve.  We are give both legs or a right triangle.  One leg is the height of the window =15ft and the other is the distance away from the building = 8ft.  We are trying to find the length of the ladder, which will be the hypotenuse.

a^2 +b^2 =c^2  where a and b are the lengths of the legs and c is the hypotenuse

8^2+15^2 = c^2

64+225 = c^2

289 = c^2

Take the square root of each side

sqrt(289) = sqrt(c^2)

17 = c

-3

step-by-step explanation:

a drawing really does here:

so i draw the horizontal line y=2 and the vertical line x=-2 at this intersection i put b (this is where my right angle is going to be).   so point b is at (-2,2).   point a is 5 units long and is also on y=2 so this point has to be (3,2) or (-7,2) -doesn't matter i will go with (3,2).

now we know c is at (-2,y) we don't know the y yet bet we know that c is on x=-2.

we have the area of the triangle is .5bh=12.5

we know the base length is 5 (ab)

we have the height is (2-y) if you look at your

plug in

.5(5)(2-y)=12.5

solve for y to get the y-coordinate for c

2.5(2-y)=12.5

divide both sides by 2.5 giving:

2-y=5

now subtract 2 on both sides

-y=3

y=-3

answer: what are the following choices