I'm not to sure what to do in general in this question i have here like i don't even know what equation to use

Question

A diagonal short cut across a rectangular parking lot is 152 yards. The length of the parking lot is 125 yards. Which best describes the width of the parking lot?

Answer 1

This forms a triangle cutting across the parking lot. The base of your triangle is 125 yards, and the hypotenuse is 152 yards. Use the Pythagorean theorem to solve:

152^2=125^2+w^2

w=86.5 yards

Answer 2

The diagonal splits the rectangle into two right triangles. The short cut of 152 yards would be the hypotenuse length of 125 yards would be one of the legs. So, we can apply the Pythagorean theorem to find the width:

x² + 125² = 152²

x² + 15625 = 23104

x² = 7479

x = √(7479) ≈ 86.8 yards