Question

Steve is turning half of his backyard into a chicken pen. His backyard is a 24 meter by 45 meter rectangle. He wants to put a chicken wire fence that stretches diagonal from one corner to the opposite corner. How many meters of fencing will Steve need?

Answer 1

51m

Explanation:

For this equation, you want to use pythagoras' theorem (or pythagorean theorem) to work out the hypotenuse (diagonal line)

The formula for this is a²+b²=c², where c is the hypotenuse.

We can sub in the 2 sides for a and b, turning the equation into 24²+45²=c².

Working out the squares gives 576+2025=c², which can be solved to c²=2601.

To get c, we must square root both sides, which results in c=51m.

**This question involves pythagoras' theorem, which you may wish to revise. I'm always happy to help!