Question

A tennis court is 78 feet long and 36 feet wide. If a player hits the ball diagonally from one corner to the diagonal corner on the opposite side, how many feet has it crossed on the court? (Round your answer to the nearest whole number)

Answer 1

The line cutting the rectangle diagonally gives you two identical triangles and the dividing line is the hypotenuse.

So we apply the Pythagorean formula:
a^2+b^2 = c^2
36^2+78^2 = c^2
1296+6084 = 7380 take the square root: sqrt7380 = 85.9


Answer 85.9 feet = round to 86