How do you do a related rates problem?

Question

if a 10ft ladder is moving away from a wall at 3ft/s, and the bottom the the ladder is 5 feet away from the wall at t=0, how fast is the ladder moving down the wall at t=3?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

at t = 0 the foot of the ladder is 5 ft from the wall, at t = 3 the distance of the foot of the ladder from the wall is 5 + 3*3 = 14 ft, but the ladder is only 10 ft long.
Can you explain this ?

OG