Thread: Help with ladder triangle problem
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Old July 6th, 2009, 12:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aidan View Post
...

The length of the base is:
= 12 \times \cos (\bold{\color{red}60^\circ})
...

Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinVM20 View Post
12 x Cos(30 degrees)

Cos 30 = 0.86602540378444 x 12 Length of ladder = 10.395048

that does not solve this problem..
1. Did you make a sketch as aidan suggested?

2. If so you must have noticed that aidan made a tiny mistake (see correction)

3. According to aidan's suggestion you've learned that \cos(60^\circ)=\dfrac12

4. Now you now that

x = 12 \cdot \cos(60^\circ) = 6

5. Therefore the foot of the ladder has a distance of 3' to the bottom of the fence.
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