Question

A walkway goes through the middle of a square playground from one corner to the opposite corner. If the walkway is 20 meters long, how long are each of the sides of the playground? Round your answer to the nearest hundredths.

Need Help!

Answer 1

I think you would use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve this, as a square cut across diagonally creates two isocele triangles. Since the longest side is 20 m, this value would be imputed into c^2.

a^2 + b^2 = c^2
a^2 + a^2 = 20^2
2a^2 = 400
2a^2/2 = 400/2
a^2 = 200
a = 14.14

Thus, each sides of the playground are 14.14 meters long.