Welcome! You are encouraged to register with the site and login (for free). When you register, you support the site and your question history is saved.
Review: Distance within a Box
Explanation
It's usually a good idea to make a quick sketch on
geometry questions:
The lengths of all of the edges of this shape are either 5
or 10. The lines joining points ,
,
and so on, are all 10. The length is the hypotenuse of a triangle with sides 5
and 10, so its length is
by the Pythagorean Theorem. However, is
not the longest segment connecting two points. Namely, is longer because it is the hypotenuse of a
triangle that has as a base, so its length is
These are the two-longest lines connecting two points on the
box, so the sought-after ratio is
The correct answer is (A).
If you believe you have found an error in this question or explanation, please contact us and include the question title or URL in your message.