A hockey field is a rectangle 60 yards by 100 yards. To the nearest tenth, what is the length of the diagonal from one corner of the field to the opposite corner. How would you calculate this answer?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Okay, this is a pythagorean theorem question. The field is 60 yards by 100 yards, and the diagonal creates a right angle like so (sorry for the poor drawing skills, I'm using a mouse here)|dw:1402958970732:dw|So, pythagorean theorem states that the two legs of a right triangle, when squared, will give us the squared length of the hypotenuse, or$$a ^{2}+b ^{2}=c ^{2}$$So all we have to do is substitute the lengths of the legs for a and b, and then solve for c.$$60^{2}+100^{2}=c ^{2}$$$$3600+10000=c$$$$13600=c ^{2}$$$$c=116.61...$$Since you are rounding to the nearest tenth, your answer would become 116.6