May I have some help with this algebra word problem please?

Question

A fly was sitting on the ground in the back left corner of a room. He flew to the the ceiling in the opposite corner of the room. How far did he fly if he went in a straight line? Write the equation.

How am I supposed to write an equation if there are no numbers?

Answer 1

Let l = length of the room
w = width of the room
h = height of the room
You have to use Pythogoras Theorem twice
The flight(f) of the fly is the hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle with the diagonal of the floor of the room(d) as one side and the height(h) as the other side.
the diagonal of the floor of the room (d) is the hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle with length (l) and width(w) of the room as sides
So d = sqrt(l^2+w^2) or d^2= l^2+w^2
and f = sqrt (d^2 + h^2)
substituting for d^2
f = sqrt[( l^2+w^2+h^2)]

Answer 2

this is just what I thought,Im not sure if it;s right or not... a fly was sitting on the ground at the corner and he flew up to the ceiling then he and it flies straiht...we can imagine this as a triangle... triangle formulae is phytagoras... the formula of pyhtagoras : a^2 -b^2 = c^2 so the distance from where the fly stand to the ceiling is a^ , the distance from the ceiling down to the point where the fly flies straight is b^2..so you can find the distance of the fly flies straight by using that equation a^2 - b^2 = c^2...it's hard if im not drawing a picture..but yeah i hope u understand

Answer 3

You know that he flew in a diagonal line, so you can divide the room into two triangles. You also know that these triangles will be right triangles, so you can use the Pythagorean theorem:

(a^2) + (b^2) = (c^2)

(the ^2 stands for squared)

c^2 is the length of the diagonal line.

Answer 4

Use Pythagoras to determine the horizontal diagonal distance from one corner to the opposite one. Then use it again to determine the vertical diagonal, using the first answer as the base, and the height of the ceiling as the height.

(width squared) plus (length squared) equals (horizontal diagonal squared). Use this figure for the next step.

(horizontal diagonal squared) plus (height squared) equals (flight squared)

Since the horizontal diagonal is found by the first step, we simply incorporate the two equations.

Therefore, width squared plus length squared (which is really the horizontal diagonal squared) plus (height squared) equals (flight of fly squared), or

sqrt (l^2=w^2=h^2)=Flight

Answer 5

you will have to use the Pythagorean Theorem twice!

If you call the three dimension length, width, and height.

Then distance = square root of ( length ^ 2 + height ^ 2 + width ^2)

Answer 6

Let's say the room is rectangular. with Width =W, Length=L, and height=H.
the Horizontal distance covered by the fly is D=SQRT(W^2+L^2).
The actual distance he flew will be Total=SQRT(D^2+H^2)These are from Pytogoras theorem....
Substitute D we get:
Total=SQRT((SQRT(W^2+L^2))^2+H^2)
SQRT means Square Root of (if you didnt know)
Does that answer your question?

Answer 7

a=length from corner on floor where he is sitting to corner diagonal from him on floor

b= length from floor to ceiling

c = length that he flew

c=square root of ( a square plus b square)

Answer 8

flight = sqrt(Height^2 + length^2 + width^2)

Answer 9

Square root of sum of squares of all three sides!!

Answer 10

Point A to Point B.