i need help with word problems

Question

1. the baseball diamond shown below is a square, 90 feet on a side. if the third baseman fields a ground ball 15 feet directly behind third base (along the line formed by home plate and third base), how far must he throw the ball to throw a runner out at first base?

 

2. a telephone cable runs from a to b to c to d. how much cable is required to run from a to d directly, if ab=223, bc=77, and cd=41?

Answer 1

Hi Lashawne,

 

I am guessing there is a diagram associated with 2. likely with some right angles in it, so will skip that for now.

 

For #1, picture a right triangle where the left leg is formed by extending the leg from home plate to 3rd base an additional 15 feet. So that leg is 105 feet. 

 

The other leg of the right triangle is from home plate to 1st base (a distance of 90 feet).

 

The throw from behind 3rd base to 1st base is the hypotenuse of the right triangle, so the Pythagorean Theorem can be used:

 

105² + 90² = c²

 

The value for c will be the square root of the sum of those squares. Hopefully you can take it from there.