Cuddles the cat is stuck in a tree (again). Cuddles is 16 feet up in the tree.
To make it stable, the ladder must be placed 12 feet away from the base of
the tree. How long will the ladder need to be to reach Cuddles? (You
can assume that the triangle is a right triangle.)

Ok so this is a Pythag question...

So the first step would be A squared plus B squared equals C squared

Your A squared would be 12

You do not have B squared value yet

Your C squared Would be 16

So your equation is 12 squared plus B squared equals 16 squared
Simplified that would be 144 plus B squared equals 256
Subtract 144 from both sides and you get 112 equals B squared so do that dividing symbol thing on both sides and you get 10.58 equals c

C= 10.58