The doorsill of a campus building is h = 5 feet above ground level. To allow wheelchair access, the steps in front of the door are to be replaced by a straight ramp with constant slope 1/12, as shown in the figure. How long must the ramp be? [The answer is not 60 feet.]

Question

Emilie Solomon

Mathematics

24 August, 18:43

The doorsill of a campus building is h = 5 feet above ground level. To allow wheelchair access, the steps in front of the door are to be replaced by a straight ramp with constant slope 1/12, as shown in the figure. How long must the ramp be? [The answer is not 60 feet.]

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Cristina Mitchell · Answer 1

60.208 feet. 60 feet is the bottom length of the ramp (touching the floor). 5 feet is the height. So the hypotenuse equals the summation of the squares (pythagoris theorem)

60^2 + 5^2 = 3625. The square root of 3625 is 60.208