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 a 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 around your answer to the nearest tenth

1 answer

To find the length of the ramp needed to fit diagonally in the cage, we can use the Pythagorean theorem.

The diagonal of the rectangular prism can be found by applying the Pythagorean theorem to the three dimensions of the cage.

Let's label the dimensions as follows:
Length = 70 cm
Width = 35 cm
Height = 50 cm

Using the Pythagorean theorem, we have:
Diagonal^2 = Length^2 + Width^2 + Height^2

Substituting the given values, we get:
Diagonal^2 = 70^2 + 35^2 + 50^2
Diagonal^2 = 4900 + 1225 + 2500
Diagonal^2 = 8625

Taking the square root of both sides, we have:
Diagonal ≈ √8625 ≈ 92.9 cm

So, the ramp needs to be approximately 92.9 cm long to fit diagonally in the cage.