2 feet high by 6 feet wide by 8 feet long. She wants to reinforce the bottom of the box with diagonal pieces of wood How long should she cut the diagonal piece of wood?

Answer 1

In this problem, we are trying to figure out the length of the diagonal of the bottom of the box. Do not be confused by how high the box is as this is simply extra information and will not be needed.

For the problem, we will use Pythagorean's Theorem which states the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sums of the squares of the lengths of the other sides. This formula is c² = a² + b² where c is the hypotenuse and a and a are the lengths of the sides. With this in mind, we will substitute in the sides and solve for c.

c² = a² + b^{2 =} 6² + 8² = 100

c = √100 = 10.

Therefore, the diagonal of the bottom of the box will be 10 feet.