If a person walks across the field along the diagonal instead of walking the length and width of the​ field, how much shorter is the​ distance?

Question

A soccer field is 70 yd wide and 100 yd long. If a person walks across the field along the diagonal instead of walking the length and width of the​ field, how much shorter is the​ distance?

The person will walk _______ yards less by taking the path across the diagonal.

​(Round to the nearest​ thousandth.)

Answer 1

Hi Red. We can assume that a right triangle is being formed, so you would use the Pythagorean Therorem. ( a squared + b squared = c squared, or the longest side) It becomes 70 squared + 100 squared = Diagonal squared. That gives us 4900 + 10,000 = 14,900. The square root of 14,900 to the nearest thousandth, from your calculator, is your answer.

Answer 2

d² = 100² + 70²

How does that compare to 170?