- #1
unscientific
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Homework Statement
The problem is about finding the longest ladder length L that can be carried horizontally across a corner between 2 corridors.
The Attempt at a Solution
I understand that the solution's using the Lagrange method but what I don't get is why they can assume that at (a+δ, 0) and (0, b+η) are the points of the longest ladder that touch the sides.
I attached a picture to demonstrate an extreme case of what I'm talking about.. (It satisfies the relation ab = ηδ by comparing tan θ.