Question

Mary walks from corner D to corner E to corner F on a city block that measures 264 feet wide and 900 feet long. Kate walks diagonally across the city block from corner D to corner F. How much less distance did Kate walk than Mary to get to corner F? Round your answer to the nearest whole foot. Enter only the number.

Answer 1

Explanation:

we have a rectangle, that is then cut in half diagonally into 2 right-angled triangles.

in our problem it does not matter which side is the larger and which is the shorter one, because the distance calculation for both cases involve one short and one long side. the sequence does not matter.

Mary walks one short and one large side to get to the opposite corner (from D to F) :

264 + 900 = 1,164 ft

Kate walks diagonally. and that diagonal is the Hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle with a short and a long side of the rectangle.

so, Pythagoras applies :

c² = a² + b²

with c being the Hypotenuse (the side opposite of the 90° angle), and a and b are the legs.

in our case that means

diagonal² = 264² + 900² = 69,696 + 810,000 =

= 879,696

diagonal = sqrt(879,696) = 937.9211054... ft ≈ 938 ft

so, Kate walked

1,164 - 938 = 226 ft

less than Mary.