Question

In baseball, the length of the path between each pair of consecutive bases is 90 feet. The paths form right angles. How far does the ball need to travel if it is thrown from home plate directly to second base? A. 90 feet B. 127.3 feet C. 135.7 feet D. 180 feet

Answer 1

This question boils down to this:
"What is the diagonal of a square with a side length of 90 ft?"

The key to this question is the properties of squares.
All of the angles in a square are right, (90°) but that diagonal is going to bisect two of those into 45° angles.
Now we have two triangles, each with angle measures of 45°, 45°. and 90°.
(an isoceles right triangle)

This 45-45-90 tirnalge is one of two special triangles (the other being the 30-60-90) and here is its special property: the sides opposite these angles can be put as x, x, and x√2 respectively. Why? Well, we know that our triangle is isoceles (the congruent base angles ⇔ congruent sides) and so we call those x...by the Pythagorean theorem...a² + b² = c²...2x² = c²...x√2 = c!

In our case here, that diagonal, being the hypotenuse of our triangle, is going to be 90√2 feet, or approximately 127.3 feet.