Question

ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴏᴘ ᴏғ ᴀ ʟᴀᴅᴅᴇʀ ᴏғ ʟᴇɴɢᴛʜ ᴍ ʀᴇᴀᴄʜᴇs ᴀ ᴡɪɴᴅᴏᴡ ᴍ ᴀʙᴏᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪs ᴛʜᴇ ᴅɪsᴛᴀɴᴄᴇ ʙᴇᴛᴡᴇᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀsᴇ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀᴅᴅᴇʀ? ​

Answer 1

Answer:

0 meters from the wall.

Step-by-step explanation:

From the included figure we can see that the ladder, the floor, and the wall

with the window forms a right angled triangle. This means that we can use pythagoras' theorem. If the window is M meters above the ground, and the ladder is M meters tall, and the top of the ladder just reaches the window, then we can apply pythagoras' theorem in the following way:

$M^2 = x^2 + M^2$

subtracting M from both sides gives

$0 = x^2$

meaning x = 0.

Hence we have that the distance between the base of the ladder and the wall must be 0 meters.