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.

Question

How many meters of fencing will Steve need?

Answer 1

By the Pythagorean theorem, we know that the length of the diagonal is the square root of the sum of the squares of the sides of the rectangle. Therefore,

diagonal = sqrt ((24^2) + (45^2))

diagonal = sqrt (576 + 2025)

diagonal = sqrt (2601)

diagonal = 51

So, Steve will need 51 meters of fencing to stretch diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner.