A 10-ft ladder, leaning against a wall, starts to slide down

[Ashleypavelko]

A 10 ft long ladder leans against the side of a wall. The top of the ladder is sliding down the wall at the rate of 3 ft/sec. How fast is the foot of the ladder moving away from the wall when the top is 6 ft above the ground?

Thanks Ashley

 

[stapel]

Why on earth had this been posted to the "Finance" category...? :shock:

A 10 ft long ladder leans against the side of a wall. The top of the ladder is sliding down the wall at the rate of 3 ft/sec. How fast is the foot of the ladder moving away from the wall when the top is 6 ft above the ground?

You've drawn the side-view picture, with an horizontal line for the ground, a vertical line for the wall, and a slanty line for the ladder, noting the right triangle that is formed. You've labelled the one fixed length, picked variables, and... then what?

Please reply with a clear description of all of your work and reasoning so far. Thank you!

Eliz.

 

[Denis]

Re:

Why on earth had this been posted to the "Finance" category...? :shock:
Eliz.

Probably because it's an expensive ladder and a "ladder loan" was required in order to purchase it :roll:

 

[DR._Glockman]

10^2 = x^2+y^2, 0 = 2xdx/dt+2ydy/dt.

dy/dt = 3, find dx/dt, When y =6, x = 8, ergo

16dx/dt = -36, dx/dt = -2.25 ft/sec.