Question

Jackson is 54 mikes east of Lazy River Resort. Ontario is 31 mikes south of Jackson. A land developer prioress building a shortcut to directly connect Ontario and Lazy River. Show calculations

Answer 1

That shortcut would be a diagonal route.  The horiz. leg would be 54 miles; the vertical one would be 31 miles.  Using the Pythagorean Theorem, we get distance d = sqrt( 31^2 + 54^2) = sqrt( 3877 ) = 62.3 miles.

Answer 2

If you use the pythagorean theorem a^2+b^2=c^2, it would look like this.

54^2+31^2=c^2
2916+961=c^2
3877=c^2
√3877=c
c≈62.2656