Question

To avoid the pond, Fred must walk 10 meters south and 24 meters east. To the nearest meter, how many meters would be saved if it were possible to walk through the pond?

Answer 1

Fred walked 10 meters down and 24 to the right. You can think of these two segments as the legs of a right triangle.

The hypotenuse of this triangle is the path Fred would have walked through the pond. So, this distance is

$d=\sqrt{10^2+24^2}=\sqrt{100+576}=\sqrt{676}=26$

So, instead of walking 10+24=34 meters, he could have walked 26 meters, saving 34-26=8 meters.