Noam walks home from school by walking 8 blocks north and then 6 blocks east. how much shorter would his walk be if there were a direct path from the school to his house? assuming that the blocks are square.

These suck! You have to use the Pythagorean Theorem, which goes something like this: a^2 + b^2 = c^2.

a = 8
b = 6
8^2 + 6^2 = x^2
64 + 32 = x^2
76=x^2
{SquareRoot}76 = x
8.72 = x (rounded to the nearest hundredth)

Now that you know the hypotenuse, you need to find the difference.

(8+6) - 8.72 = x
14 - 8.72 = x
5.28 = x

Your answer is 5.28.