What is the distance from home plate to second base?

A particular baseball diamond is actually a square with 79 foot sides. What is the distance from home plate to second base?

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The diagonal of the square is the distance from home plate to second base.  A right triangle is formed with the legs of the right triangle being from home plate to 1st base and from 1st base to 2nd base.  The hypotenuse of the right triangle is the diagonal, or the distance from home plate to second base.

Use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distance from home to 2nd.

a² + b² = c²  {the Pythagorean Theorem}
a and b are the legs of the right triangle, and c is the hypotenuse

79² + 79² = c²   {substituted given information into the Pythagorean Theorem}
6241 + 6241 = c²   {squared the 79’s}
12,482 = c²   {added}
c ≈ 111.7   {took the square root of each side and rounded}

The distance from home plate to second base is approximately 111.7 feet.
{on this particular field}

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