Question

A park is in the shape of a rectangle 8 miles long and 6 miles wide. How much shorter is your walk if you walk diagonally across the park than along two sides of it?

Answer 1

this would be a right triangle with the legs being 8 miles and 6 miles. using the Pythagorean theorem, the hypotenuse would be 10 miles long. therefore, he would be walking a total of four miles less if he walked diagonally.

Answer 2

8 + 6 = 14

Find the hypotenuse of the triangle.

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

Where 'a' and 'b' are the two legs and 'c' is the hypotenuse.

Plug in what we know:

6^2 + 8^2 = c^2

Simplify the exponents:

36 + 64 = c^2

Add:

100 = c^2

Find the square root of both sides:

c = 10

14 - 10 = 4

So walking diagonally across will be 4 miles shorter than walking around the edges.