Sam has a barn that is 16 feet high. He needs to replace a piece of roofing and wants to use a ladder that will rest 8 feet from the building and still reach the top of the building. What length ladder should he use?

Answer: the length of the ladder should be 17.9 feet

Step-by-step explanation:

The ladder would form a right angle triangle with the building and the ground. The length of the ladder represents the hypotenuse of the right angle triangle. The height from the top of the ladder to the base of the building represents the opposite side of the right angle triangle.

The distance from the bottom of the ladder to the base of the building represents the adjacent side of the right angle triangle.

To determine the length of the ladder h, we would apply Pythagoras theorem which is expressed as

Hypotenuse² = opposite side² + adjacent side²

h² = 16² + 8² = 256 + 64

h² = 320

h = √320 = 17.9 feet