Question

A straw is placed inside a rectangular box that is 9 inches by 6 inches by 8 inches, as shown. If the straw fits exactly into the box diagonally from the bottom left corner to the top right back corner, how long is the straw? Leave your answer in simplest radical form.

Answer 1

The length of the straw in a rectangular box of dimensions 9 by 6 by 8 inches is the diagonal of the box, which can be found using the Pythagorean theorem. The length of the diagonal is sqrt(181) inches or about 13.4536 inches.