A rectangular field is 1.5 km long and 700 m wide. An asphalt road goes around the outside of the field and a dirt path cuts across the field. A student wants to go from A to B on the field. Path x goes along the road and is shown in red; path y is shown in blue. Which path has the shorter distance? By how much is the path shorter?

How do I calculate this?

4 answers

I have no idea where the paths are, or points A, B,nor Path x
There is a rectanular field. Point A is in one corner of the field, and Point B is the corner diagonal from Point A. Path x goes along the road from point A (horizontally, and then up vertically to point B.
If I follow it , then one distanceis L+W, the other distance is sqrt(L^2+W^2)
WHich distance is square root? The y distance? I don't get how to calculate the square root thing