You're locked out of your

house and the only open

window is on the second

floor, 20 feet above the

ground. You need to borrow

a ladder from one of your

neighbors. There's a bush

along the edge of the house,

so you'll have to place Lie

ladder 15 feet from the

house. What length of

ladder do you need to reach

the window?

25 feet

Step-by-step explanation:

In this problem, you would need to use the pythagorean theorem, a^2 + b^2 = c^2.

It doesn't matter which you decide to be a and which you decide to be b, but the diagonal line, or hypotenuse, must be c. In this case, that is the ladder.

Now you plug numbers into the equation. 20^2 + 15^2 = c^2.

Simplify the left side of the equation. 400 + 225 = c^2, 625 = c^2.

Now, since c is still squared, take the square root of both sides. c = 25.

Another way to solve this is using the special triangles. One of the easiest to remember is the 3-4-5 triangle. That is what this triangle is, once you factor out a 5 from all of the numbers (15/5=3, 20/5=4, 25/5=5). Them you just multiply whatever missing number you are looking for by the factor you took out (5 * 5 = 25).