Question

field trial. in a labrador retriever field trial, a dog is judged by the straight line it takes to retrieve a fallen bird. it is required to go through the water, not along the shore. if the judge wants to calculate how far a dog will travel along a straight path, she walks the two legs of a right triangle as shown in the drawing and uses the pythagorean theorem. how far would this dog travel (run and swim) if it traveled along the hypotenuse? 58 ft pond 26 ft

Explanation:

Step1: Recall Pythagorean theorem

The Pythagorean theorem for a right - triangle is $a^{2}+b^{2}=c^{2}$, where $a$ and $b$ are the legs of the right - triangle and $c$ is the hypotenuse. Here, $a = 26$ ft and $b = 58$ ft.

Step2: Substitute values into the formula

$c=\sqrt{a^{2}+b^{2}}=\sqrt{26^{2}+58^{2}}=\sqrt{676 + 3364}$.

Step3: Calculate the sum inside the square - root

$\sqrt{676+3364}=\sqrt{4040}$.

Step4: Simplify the square - root

$\sqrt{4040}\approx63.6$ ft.

Answer:

Approximately 63.6 ft