a city block 500' x 500' has a large building 300' x 400' in the NW corner. The rest of the block is

Question

unobstructed paved lot. What's the shortest distance from the SW corner to the NE corner of the city block, going thru the paved lot (to the nearest foot). Please show your solution

Answer 1

using the pythagorean(might be spelled wrong) theory. draw it out and label it. its hard to describe how to do it, but you use the theory twice because you can cut across from the SW corner of the block to the Southeast corner of the building and then from there to the NE corner of the block. or at least thats how i would do it and you shouldn't have a problem finding the answer.

Answer 2

Excluding the building, the remaining block would be in the shape of an L with the _ of the L on the left side instead of on the right. This can be split into two rectangles of the dimensions (in feet) 400X200 and 100X300. This is true whichever way the building is, i.e. 300X400 or 400X300.
The shortest distance required = the sum of the distances of the diagonals of the two rectangles starting from the SW corner and then to the NE corner, added together.
This would give sq. root of (100^2+300^2) plus sq. root of
(200^2+400^2) which would be 316.2 plus 447.2=763.4 feet, correct to two decimals.