A 12-foot ladder rests against the side of a house. The base of the ladder is 3 feet away from the side of the house. How high above the ground is the top of the ladder?

3. root 15 feet

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this problem, we will use Pythagorean's theorem. Now let's visualize a right angled triangle in which the hypotenuse stands for the total ladder length and the base of the ladder standing away from the wall is say the adjacent.

The length of the ladder is the opposite which is the last side of the complete triangle.

Hence, to find this side we use s^2 = 12^2 - 3^2

S^2 = 144 - 9

S^2 = 135

S = square root of 135 = 3. root15 feet