Question

arron takes his dog for a walk afer school, he walks 5 blocks east and then 4 blocks north. if he was able to take a direct route home, how many blocks would he need to travel

Answer 1

Hi!

We are given the information found in the picture below.

Note: The directions aren't correct, but the triangle works for this problem.

The "direct path" is the hypotenuse of this triangle.

To find this, we use the Pythagorean Theorem, where
`a` and
`b` are 2 legs of the triangle, and
`c` is the hypotenuse, aka the longest side of any triangle:

`a^2+b^2=c^2`

We know
`a` and
`b` and want
`c`

`4^2+5^2=c^2`

`16+25=c^2`

`41=c^2`

Therefore,
`c` is approximately
`6.403`