Question

Melissa has a gerbil that lives in a cage in the shape of a rectangular prism. She wants to put a ramp in the cage to give her gerbil exercise. The cage has a length of 70 cm, a width of 35 cm, and a height of 50 cm. How long does the ramp need to be to fit diagonally in the cage? Round the answer to the nearest tenth.

1 answer

To find the length of the ramp that fits diagonally in the cage shaped as a rectangular prism, we can use the 3-dimensional diagonal formula for a rectangular prism:

\[ d = \sqrt{l^2 + w^2 + h^2} \]

where:

  • \(d\) is the diagonal length,
  • \(l\) is the length,
  • \(w\) is the width,
  • \(h\) is the height.

In this case, the dimensions of the cage are:

  • \(l = 70 \text{ cm}\)
  • \(w = 35 \text{ cm}\)
  • \(h = 50 \text{ cm}\)

Now, we can plug these values into the formula:

\[ d = \sqrt{70^2 + 35^2 + 50^2} \]

First, we calculate each term:

\[ 70^2 = 4900 \] \[ 35^2 = 1225 \] \[ 50^2 = 2500 \]

Now, we add these values together:

\[ d = \sqrt{4900 + 1225 + 2500} \] \[ d = \sqrt{8625} \]

Now we find the square root of 8625:

\[ d \approx 92.9 \]

Finally, rounding to the nearest tenth, the length of the ramp needed to fit diagonally in the cage is

\[ \boxed{92.9 \text{ cm}} \]