Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Generation Debate-8th grade math test

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Solution: First figure out how far it is to walk around:
x = 400 + 600
x = 1,000 ft

Now figure out how far it is to walk diagonally across. The distance across is the long side (the hypotenuse) of a right triangle with sides of length 400 and 600. The square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the shorter sides:
h2 = 400^2 + 600^2
h2 = 160,000 + 360,000
h2 = 520,000

Use a calculator to take the square root of both sides and round off to the nearest whole number:
h = 721

Now subtract the distance across the field from the distance around the field:
1,000 - 721 = 279

The distance across is therefore about 279 feet less than the distance around.

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