Question

Steve is turning half of his backyard into a chicken pen. His backyard is a 24 meter by 45 meter rectangle. He wants to put a chicken wire fence that stretches diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner. How many meters of fencing will Steve need?

Answer 1

Hello!

You can use the Pythagorean Theorem


`a^(2) + b^(2) = c^(2)`

c is the diagonal length
a and b are the other side lengths

Put in the values you know


`24^(2) + 45^(2) = c^(2)`

Square each of the numbers


`576 + 2025 = c^(2)`

Add


`2601 = c^(2)`

Take the square root of both sides

c = 51

The answer is 51

Hope this helps!