Wood Butcher wrote:
Interesting solution.
However, using your 2 values of n and substituting into
the hypotenuse of the upper small triangle one gets:
5+n = either 12 or 8 (approximately) which is
longer than the total ladder.
Using the negative roots for n gives the lower triangle
a longer hypotenuse that the total ladder.

How is this possible?

Art


"Steve Walker" wrote in message
news:I4tme.6402$m%3.2273@trnddc02...
Solve for n.


|
|\
| \
| \5+n
y| \
| \
|__2__\
| |\
2| 2| \5-n
|_____|__\___
2 x

snip

n = 7.0282287953651594252678749478686 (Damn, this can't be right!)
or
n = 2.9332575747792760110661745961244 (Hmmm, maybe)




I dunno. G I remember the formulas. Theory sometimes escapes me if I
don't use it often enough.

--
Steve Walker
(remove wallet to reply)