Steve is turning half of his backyard into a chicken pen. His backyard is a 24 meter by 45 meter rectangle. He wants to put a chicken wire fence that stretches diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner.
How many meters of fencing will Steve need?
To find the length of the diagonal of the rectangle, we can use the Pythagorean theorem:
diagonal² = length² + width²
diagonal² = 24² + 45² = 576 + 2025 = 2601
diagonal = √2601 = 51
So Steve will need 51 meters of fencing to stretch diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner of his backyard.