A disoriented driver crosses diagonally from one corner of a 150 m by 275 m lawn to the far corner. How far does the wayward driver drive across the lawn? Give an approximate answer to three decimal places.
What formula would I apply to solve this?
A diagonal line between opposite corners of a rectangle (the lawn) forms two right triangles. Apply the Pythagorean theorem to either of those triangles. The diagonal will be the hypotenuse in the formula.
And how would I do that?
Ever heard of a^2 + b^2 = c^2 for right triangles?
I suggest you review the Pythagorean theorem.
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT669/Student.Folders/Morris.Stephanie/EMT.669/Essay.1/Pythagorean.html
To solve this problem, you can use the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
In this case, the driver's path across the lawn creates a right triangle. The two sides of the triangle are the length and the width of the lawn, and the hypotenuse is the distance the driver travels.
The formula to calculate the length of the hypotenuse (c) is:
c = √(a^2 + b^2)
where a and b are the lengths of the other two sides of the triangle.
In this case, the length of the lawn is 150 m and the width is 275 m. Plugging these values into the formula, we have:
c = √(150^2 + 275^2)
Now, let's calculate the distance:
c = √(22500 + 75625)
= √(98125)
≈ 313.153
Therefore, the wayward driver drives approximately 313.153 meters across the lawn.