Question

arron takes his dog for a walk afer school, he walks 5 blocks east and then 4 blocks north. if he was able to take a direct route home, how many blocks would he need to travel

Answer 1

Hi!

We are given the information found in the picture below.

Note: The directions aren't correct, but the triangle works for this problem.

The "direct path" is the hypotenuse of this triangle.

To find this, we use the Pythagorean Theorem, where $a$ and $b$ are 2 legs of the triangle, and $c$ is the hypotenuse, aka the longest side of any triangle:

$a^2+b^2=c^2$

We know $a$ and $b$ and want $c$

$4^2+5^2=c^2$

$16+25=c^2$

$41=c^2$

Therefore, $c$ is approximately $6.403$