Question

You walk 44 steps north. You turn and then walk 33 steps east. Every step is the same length. What is the shortest distance from where you started to where you ended?

Answer 1

ANSWER: 29.10326442 ft or about 29 ft.

1. Because the steps are the same length, and you are walking in straight lines, we can assume that the shortest distance is a diagonal in the northeast direction

2. The diagonal, along with the north and east walking paths for a 90 degree triangle, we can use pythagorean theorem to solve this (a^2+b^2=C^2)

2. Substitute 44 and 33 for a and b and solve. You get C^2=847. Take the square root of that and you get 29.1