Question

A baseball diamond has four right angles and four equal sides. Each What is the shortest distance between home plate and second base? Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

The shortest distance between home plate and second base on a baseball diamond, treated as the diagonal of a square, is calculated to be approximately 127.3 feet using the Pythagorean theorem.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the shortest distance between home plate and second base on a baseball diamond, which has four equal sides and four right angles, we can treat the diamond as a square. The diagonal of a square, which in this case represents the distance from home plate to second base, can be found using the Pythagorean theorem. If the length of one side of the square is 's', then the diagonal 'd' is given by
`d = √(2s^2)`.

Since the length of a side of a baseball diamond is 90 feet, we plug that into the formula to get:

`d = √(2 * 90^2)`

`d = √(2 * 8100)`

`d = √(16200)`
d ≈ 127.3 feet

Therefore, the shortest distance between home plate and second base, rounded to the nearest tenth, is 127.3 feet.