Question

The Forbidden City in Beijing, China, is the world's largest palace complex. Surrounded by a wall and a moat, the rectangular complex is 960 m long and 750 m wide. Find the distance, to the nearest meter, from one corner of the complex to the opposite corner.

Answer 1

Since we are asked about the distance from corner to corner, we are to find the hypotenuse. So using the hypotenuse formula:

c^2 = a^2 + b^2

c^2 = 960^2 + 750^2

c^2 = 1,484,100

c = 1,218.24 m

Hence the distance from corner to corner is about 1218 meters.