Answer:
Option B. 4s = 360
Explanation:
We're given that a baseball diamond has 4 equal sides, and that the total distance around the diamond is 360 feet.
If we're supposed to use "s" for a side length and make an equation, then the 4 sides added together would equal 360:
s + s + s + s = 360
Recall that repeated addition can be rewritten as multiplication. There are 4 "s"s, all connected by "+", so the left side of the equation could be rewritten as "4 times s", or 4*s. Often when a number is multiplied to a letter, we don't explicitly write the multiplication sign, so it could be simplified a little further to just 4s.
So, our equation could be simplified to 4s = 360.
This is option B.
Verifying the answer
To verify the answer, we could solve the equation:
4s = 360
To solve for "s", we need to undo everything that has been done to it to get it by itself. In this case, there is a 4 multiplied to it. The opposite of multiplication is division, so to undo multiplying by 4, we would divide by 4. To keep the equation balanced, we'll need to divide by 4 on both sides of the equation:
On the left side, the multiply by 4 and divide by 4 undo each other, leaving just s. Evaluating the right side, gives 90.
s=90
So, if s=90, each side of the baseball diamond is 90 feet. With 4 equal sides, going back to our original equation: 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 = 360, so the distance around the diamond equals 360 as given.
Therefore our equation (option B) was correct.