A painter leans a 34-ft ladder against a building. The base of the ladder is 16 ft from the building. To the nearest foot, how high on the building does the ladder reach?

First you need the equation a^2+b^2=c^2. So your new equation is a^2+16^2=34^2. Since 34^2 equals to 1156 and 16^2 equals to 256. You subtract 256 from 1156 which is 900. Since the square root of 900 is 30, the ladder reaches 30 feet high.