A 16 foot ladder rests against the side of a house and the base of the ladder is 4 feet away. How high above the ground is the top of the ladder? Round to the nearestt tenth of a foot.

The ladder, wall, and ground form a right triangle, with the ladder as the 16-foot hypotenuse and the base 4 feet from the wall. By the Pythagorean theorem, the height is √(16² − 4²) = √240 ≈ 15.49 feet. Rounded to the nearest tenth, the top is 15.5 feet above the ground, choice A.

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